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LIBRARYANNEX
2 DRAWINGFOR ART STUDENTSAND ILLUSTRATORS
ALLEN W. SEABY
CORNELLUNIVERSITYLIBRARY
FINE ARTS LIBRARY
3 1924 075 072 235
Cornell University
Library
The original of this book is in
the Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924075072235
DRAWINGFOR ART STUDENTSAND ILLUSTRATORS
Jro>!fispiere.
A brilliant chalk drawing by Corregio. The modelling is broad and sharp
accents of dark have been avoided. The downward direction of the strokes
from right to left should be noted, the simplest movement for a right-handed
person.
DRAWINGFOR ART STUDENTSAND ILLUSTRATORS
BY
ALLEN W. SEABY
LONDON
:
B. T. BATSFORD, LTD., 94, HIGH HOLBORN.
PRINTED BYJOHN HIGHAM & COY. LTD,
HYDE, MANCHESTER.
PREFACE.
In the first place I must offer humble apologies to mystudents, past and present, whose failings I have soruthlessly exploited for my own purpose. They will, I
trust, pardon me for holding them up as horrid examplesrather than shining lights.
Next I must tender my acknowledgments to mymaster and friend, Mr. F. Morley Fletcher, to whom I
owe everything in art, and especially for his teaching, as
I understand it, of the use of expressive line.
I have to thank Prof. Edith Morley for reading ayery untidy manuscript, and Mr. C. C. Pearce,
A.R.B.A., for suggestions. I must also thank Mr. A. S.
Hartrick, R.W.S., for allowing me to reproduce twoParis life studies (figs. i6 and 25A), Mr. E. S. Lumsden,R.E., for several drawings (figs. 18, 28 and 44), MissDorothy Johnston (figs. 21 and 31 a), Mr. C. C. Pearce(fig. 12), Mr. H. Hampton (fig. 43), Miss Agnes Forbesand other students for various drawings and sketches
which are only intended to serve as indications of
method.My thanks are also due to the Hon John Fortescue,
of the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, for permission to
reproduce the Holbein drawings, to the British Museumauthorities, and to Mr. W. B. Paterson, who obtained
Mr. W. A. Coats' consent to use his Crawhall drawing.
The line blocks, as can be seen, are mere scribbled
diagrams with no pretence to draughtsmanship.
Lastly, in a book planned as this is, there mustnecessarily be a certain amount of repetition. Perhapsthis is not altogether bad for the student ; as all teachers
know, important matters need more than one telling.
A. W. SEABY.University College,
Reading.
April, 192 1.
CONTENTS.
Chapter
XX. DRAWING AS A PREPARATION FORPAINTING 140
XXI. CONVENTION 151
XXII. DRAWING FOR ILLUSTRATORS 161
XXIII. THE DRAWINGS OF THE MASTERS i66
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
In these days, when daily prophecies are made con-
cerning the art work required in the near future, in the
shape of pattern and costume designing, poster and
advertisement work, illustration, etc., when one sees in
the press a great campaign of correspondence teaching
with the promise of remunerative employment to every
student who "completes the course," with the implication
that no long training in art study is necessary, and that
there is a royal road to art, it becomes necessary to insist
upon the importance of draughtsmanship in the classical
sense, as understood by Holbein, Velasquez, Ingres,
Menzel, and Degas. This technical power or faculty,
call it what we will, is not a conjuring trick, a mere
sleight-of-hand to be learned as a series of "tips," but
must be acquired, if at all, by severe training, and by
intellectual visual effort. It must be searched for rather
than picked up, and learned from one whom the student
trusts, putting himself in his teacher's hands with con-
fidence, not regarding him as one standing behind a
counter ready for a fee to cut off a small snip of the fabric
of art teaching, to show, say, how tricks with a water
2 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
colour brush are performed, or how to draw a pretty face.
When the student has arrived at some measure of the
knowledge of art, he will press into his service all the
refinements of technique which he can acquire from any
one who can teach him, but without that, he is the more
a charlatan, the more dodges and manipulative processes
he can command.The following chapters, therefore, are concerned with
drawing as a study, and an attempt is made in them
to emphasize the importance of a student-like attitude
of mind, and a wise docility in carrying out tasks not
perhaps in themselves very interesting, but necessary if
the draughtsman is to be well equipped. Nor should
readers cavil at such a term as "tasks," for though the
emotional side of art is now-a-days insisted upon, and
rightly so, yet it is all the more necessary that the artist
shall be absolutely the master of his instrument, if he is
to possess the souls of his listeners. And if this striving
and study is necessary in music, still more is it in pictorial
art.
On the other hand the study of drawing cannot
proceed without the active interest of the pupil. Thenotion still lingers that drawing is a discipline, that
students should be made to 'do it because they do not
like it. But when the eye loses its interest and pertin-
acity, a particular drawing is better laid aside, for
further work will resolve itself into tinkering, embroider-
ing or stippling, mere occupation without observation.
If the study has been made on right lines, if placing,
proportion, movement and construction have been
grappled with, the drawing has earned its place in the
INTRODUCTION. 3
Stairway of art study, for it has raised the student a step
above his previous attempts. A real responsibility rests
on the student, who should ascertain for himself how far
he can take a drawing, though the art teacher can do
much to help him by exhortation and even example.
Many students are slow to recognise the necessity of
testing their powers of observation and expression in any
one drawing; some artists have only forced themselves
to this long after their school days were over, as witness
Degas, who shut himself up for two years while he
searched his powers of observation to the utmost in pro-
ducing his exquisitely finished pictures of Paris street
life.
After some experience of teaching drawing it seems
to the writer that certain essentials of study, not only
perhaps in drawing, but in all art are :—(i) the develop-
ment of the sense of proportion, and by this is meant
more than getting one's measurements right, but a feel-
ing for good proportions, such as is generally admitted
was innate in the Italians to a higher degree than in the
northern peoples, and the reason lies at hand, for the
former never lost touch with the classic canons of pro-
portion, while the architecture and sculpture, which
formed their environment, showed them proportion
embodied. (2) Hardly less important is the quality of
sincerity, of being oneself, of not apeing another's style.
Art Students, from their very temperament, are quickly
impressed, not least by the work of the cleverer students.
Later on they follow the manner of their master or of
artists they admire. There is not much harm in this up
to a certain point, and indeed art tradition has been built
4 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
up in some such way. On the other hand the student
with character and individuality, while showing in his
work admiration for others, will feel within himself a
wish to follow his bent, to do things his own way. Fromthis comes character, a quality in art work, which is
spontaneous, and not to be striven for consciously.
As for "style," that comes only to a few, and an art
teacher has to leave it out of his calculations, happy if
years after, the work of a former pupil is seen to possess
that elusive and rare quality. But one can show one's
students to some extent what style means in drawing;
the rhythmical line of Botticelli, Ingres and the Oriental
masters, the veracity and clarity of Holbein, the
structural drawing of Durer, to name only a few masters.
Certainly every school should have reproductions of
drawings by masters, early and modern, not in order to
frighten students, or even that they should copy them,
but to instil into their minds the qualities that the best
drawings possess.
The student should study such reproductions, or
better still, the actual drawings in the British Museum,at Oxford and elsewhere. He will see that each master
has a rhythm peculiar to himself, not only a conscious
rhythm, such as the marshalling of the masses as we see
in Rembrandt's Hundred Guilder print, with their
pyramidal or wave-like forms, all leading to the central
group, or a similarly conscious effort to achieve a
calligraphic flow of line as seen in the Chinese and
Japanese masters; but a sub-conscious rhythmical stroke
or accent, by which we know the artist as we might recog-
nise him by his handwriting. The ample curves of
INTRODUCTION. S
Rubens, the sweet flowing line of Guercino, the staccato
rhythm of Fragonard, the square cut forms of
Rembrandt, as seen in his brush drawings, are examples.
But this rhythmical movement of the hand cannot
be taught, and the student should not consciously strive
for it, or he may acquire not rhythm, but merely a
mannered touch.
Composition has been dealt with incidentally, but
this is a subject which demands full treatment, while the
following chapters are concerned with how to draw. In
practice, however, the two are interwoven, and as com-
position comprehends all the subjects of art study it
stands easily first, and should be given a corresponding
position in any art curriculum.
Too long has art teaching been concerned with mere
imitation, whereas the first stroke on a sheet of paper
involves attention to other things. It implies a choice,
for it fixes the dimensions, determines the placing and
the movement ; in other words the first steps of a drawing
have to do not so much with imitation as composition.
It might be put this way, that the student who studies art
mainly through composition and allied subjects will
draw well enough, while the student who does nothing
but copy may miss the very kernel of his art.
The opening sentences of this introduction show that
the writer is on the side of those in authority who
advocate sustained effort as against slick sketching. It
happens that he has had to deal with art students from
all parts of Britain, and from abroad, and of but few
could it be said that they had been put upon the right
road, that ideas of proportion, of construction, and of
6 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
movement had been steadfastly pressed upon them, and
he has reluctantly come to the conclusion that the teach-
ing of drawing is often wanting in clearness, that what
may be called the rudiments—^how to set about a draw-
ing, how to carry out the successive stages, have not been
inculcated. Too often the student shows by his
muddling attempts that he has not been taught to draw,
and this applies with equal force to the more brilliant
students. This is a serious matter, and no number of
gold medals for overworked, or, on the other hand, tricky
drawings, will put the matter right. The kindness of
heart which fears to criticize with faithfulness is cruelty
in the end, for students are often so wrapped in their
own manner of work and way of seeing that only the
plainest speaking will shake them free.
Of course no teacher can command "good" drawing
from his pupils, but their work shows clearly enough
what sort of teaching they have received. Perhaps a
great part of the truth lies in this, that the teacher may be
thinking more of the drawing than of the pupil, more
anxious for the successful completion of the work than
that the student should proceed by logical and artistic
steps. A study abandoned because of wrong method
may lose a medal, but it may be for the student's welfare,
for while a drawing may be tinkered into shape, may be
"pulled out of the fire," yet during the process the
student is learning to draw badly, to attach importance
to dodges and contrivances for making a bad drawing
appear better than it is.
CHAPTER II.
THE BIAS OF VISION.
For good or ill the invention of perspective gave an
enormous impetus to art study, as distinct from practical
apprenticeship in the studio or workshop. When the
science is held to include reflections and the representa-
tion of shadows, it occupies the same field as that study
we call Drawing. Photography, erroneous as is its
perspective, judged by human eye standards, gave a
fresh lease of life to the subject, or as the Post-
Impressionists would put it, riveted the perspective
fetters yet more firmly on pictorial art.
That is to say, the study of form in the Art School
is necessarily based upon appearances, and at once the
art student parts company with his brother in the street
who has an absolute contempt for appearances in the
sense in which the term is here used. In order to
establish the relation between reality and experience
gained by the eye one may observe as far as it be poss-
ible an infant's visual sensations. Shortly after birth
it evidently notices a light as marked by the movement
of the eyes and head. A little later it tries to reach
brightly coloured objects presented to it (as the saying
8 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
is, it cries for the moon), and the observer will note howtentative and uncertain are its efforts, the difficulty it has
in reaching with its hand the exact position of the object.
If with one eye closed small objects are picked up
from the table, the adult will appreciate the infant's
difficulty, for with this handicap it is not easy to estimate
the exact distance the hand has to travel to grasp the
object.
The child has perforce to continue its investigations.
It hurts itself by knocking against objects, or falling
over them, until by dint of practice and sad experience it
has become at a quite early age what may be called
"distance perfect." It has learned to look into space
as compared with the artist's way of looking at space.
This power of measuring distances is essential to
the preservation of life, and the knowledge is being used
throughout our waking moments. From the appearance
of things the actual is reconstructed.
Hence a Philistine, sub-conscious contempt for
appearances, for light and shade, change of colour
caused by shadows or distance, and apparent changes of
form owing to foreshortening. To the non-artist these
are illusions, deceptions making the daily walk in life
more difficult perhaps, but easily to be overcome by
wariness, by the determination not to confound the
"shadow" with the substance.
Hence the teacher finds that all beginners make their
drawings, in a sense, too like the object; their ellipses
are nearer the circle, and their horizontal surfaces wider,
than the position of the object warrants.
Again, every art teacher knows that in a junior class
THE BIAS OF VISION. 9
practising object drawing, there will be at least one case
where the pupil has not drawn the appearance of the
object as he sees it from where he is, but as it wouldappear if he were in another position. Sometimes two
drawings of an object may be found almost identical in
appearance, yet made by students several feet apart.
In this case the student, who has evidently expended
some intellectual energy in thus projecting himself into
an imaginary position, does so because he feels that the
view he actually has would give but an imperfect idea of
the shape and function of the object, and this gives the
clue to so-called errors that we see in old work. TheEgyptian symbol of a man shows the head in profile, the
shoulders in front view and the legs again in profile.
The Assyrian bas-relief makes the king twice the size of
his attendants, while the mediaeval illustrator causes his
hero to appear several times in the same picture amonghouses, trees, etc., rather less in height than himself.
Children, for the same reason, depict a profile view of a
face with a front view of the eye, and often add another
eye, nose and mouth as well, or they depict both ends of
a house in one drawing. In all these cases appearance
is ignored. The delineator is obsessed by realities, and
is occupied in presenting the largest possible content of
the objects depicted.
Similarly, if an object with which a young pupil is
familiar, such as a kitchen bellows, is laid upon the table
as an exercise in the drawing lesson, the apparent change
of shape due to foreshadowing is apt to be ignored, with
the result that a view is given of the bellows in plan, with
the side view tacked on as it were. The students see by
10 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
a kind of mental vision, the ground plans of objects as a
bird's eye view, because that imaginary position enables
them to visualize objects more easily. Such draw-
ing cannot be called wrong ; it merely denotes an early,
and in these days of realism and photographic vision, an
inconvenient convention. It is not a question of diffi-
culty in the sense that the lines are intricate or hard to
follow, for these may be of the easiest, but rather a
misunderstanding between teacher and students, the
former being concerned with the modern or sophisticated
aspect of art, the latter still making use of traditional
conventions.
And indeed the historic art periods of greatest charm
came before perspective and light and shade had been
treated scientifically. One might cite the splendidly
alive and characteristic animals of the Egyptians, the
Greek vase forms with their linear purity, the early work
of the mediaeval illuminators, Chinese and Japanese
drawing, and the detailed vision of the naturalistic
painters of the quattrocento. In all these periods the
,vision was artistic, and triumphed over inconsistencies of
representation as judged by later standards.
Consideration of this deference to the claims of reality
enables the art teacher to appreciate the difficulties his
students have in grappling with the figure. Beginners
make the head too large for the body, the face too big for
the skull ; the hair like string or wire, pre-occupied as
they are with realities, which cannot be compassed on a
plane surface. Their vision may be said to be anthropo-
morphic, for they regard everything from the humanstandpoint. A house at the end of a long avenue of
THE BIAS OF VISION. ii
trees, for instance, is likely to be drawn much larger than
it appears, because it is the home of man, and as such is
unconsciously emphasized.
In this connexion it may be noted that there are no
sucH beings as pupils totally untrained in drawing, for
all have been taught to draw in early childhood, but by
means of a series of recipes or symbols. How to draw
a man, horse, tree, etc., are questions freely asked by
children with the expectation of an immediate ready-
made answer. In later stages of drawing practice these
old symbols or images re-appear, and hide or fog the
object set before the students, who often draw, not what
they see, but the object coloured or biassed by this sub-
conscious image of long ago which, as it were, they
behold with an inner eye simultaneously with their vision
of what is before them.
This sub-conscious image plays strange pranks with
the drawing. Sometimes the student substitutes his
own features and physical proportions for those of the
model, or may be the features of the previous sitter
appear on the drawing.
Students' figure drawings often betray to an
amusing extent the type they fancy in the opposite sex,
while equally common is the inability to portray
an alien racial type. The usual Italian model is
transformed into a square-profiled Englishman. Whenone looks for it, "the English look" on students' draw-
ings of foreign models is quite ludicrous. Thephysiognomy of even an allied race like the Dutch is
absolutely differentiated from that of the English type.
12 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
Much concentrated observation and searching for the
accents which make up this differentiation of race forms,
are needed. The student has to teach himself to get, as
it were, outside his own personality, in which a young
person is often impregnably intrenched, and subordinate
himself to his model. He has to set himself free from
these sub-conscious, anthropomorphic fetters already
alluded to. Perhaps the only way to achieve this is
through sympathy with his subject. Too often students
barely consider the model as a human being; they are
quick to find some variation in the pose from what they
saw before, and hasten to correct it, very much as they
would alter a lay figure.
Apart then from dealing with faults of construction
and proportion the teacher's chief difficulty is to get
students outside themselves. The well-being of most
young people, their exuberant vitality, their good spirits
and freedom from care, make it difficult for them to
visualize other than in terms of their own personality.
In other words artists begin to see more truly as the
illusions of youth pass from them; they at length see
things as they are.
CHAPTER III.
PROPORTION.
To give the student some idea of the meaning of
proportion should be the teacher's early aim, and it will
entail endless teaching, for when proportion is felt, as
well as measured, little more will be left to teach.
The teachers of the humanities claim that their
studies give a sense of proportion in human affairs. Theart teacher may also contend that the practice of draw-
ing, rightly pursued, leads to the same end, that a child
who has made a well proportioned drawing has begun to
develop the sense of proportion, a step towards the build-
ing up of the good citizen, who looks at affairs with a
steady eye. Exercises which otherwise might develop
the sense of proportion are often smothered by rules.
Students are coached assiduously in the number of times
the head measures into the body, or in constructions in-
volving middle lines, or in blocking out details in squares
or triangles, while traces of the once elaborate scaffold-
ings of verticals and horizontals with which students
used to commence a drawing may yet be found.
As Mr. Water Sickert once wrote, "There are too
many props introduced to help the student, with the
13
14 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
result that the edge of observation is somewhat blunted."
The same may be said of perspective, the formal
rules of which, hastily learned by rote, tend to atrophy
the powers of observation. Students sometimes seem
to think that so long as receding parallels are made to
vanish somewhere, all is done that need be expected of
them, with the result that on looking at the drawing wesee it to be merely a travesty of the forms of what has
been placed before the eye.
The writer once visited a school with some students
training to become teachers, to watch the drawing lesson.
Some children were drawing a box placed before the
class, and at the close of the lesson the students were
asked to pick out the best drawing. Papers were handed
in showing some knowledge of perspective rules, and
there was a chorus of dissent when the writer showed the
drawing he had chosen, for not a single line was in
correct perspective. But it had the right proportions, it
looked like the box, whereas the other drawings were too
long or too high.
Of course the student can always ascertain the propor-
tions by measurement, but the appeal to be fruitful must
be mainly to the eye. The living model, whether
draped or nude, affords practice in proportion readily
appreciated by students, for they know people best, andare familiar with their own build and proportions.
What are known as common objects do not, to the
same extent, develop in the student this, critical faculty.
Most junior students calmly make extensive alterations
in vases, etc., without any qualms of conscience, while,
out of doors, such objects as trees make still less appeal
PROPORTION. IS
to the sense of proportion, for they are assumed by the
beginner to have no contour or shape, and are accord-
ingly hacked and chopped about to fit them within the
limits of the paper.
With junior pupils "drawing a middle line as a com-
mencement causes misproportion, the drawing almost
invariably being too wide.
Sometimes bad proportions result from the anthro-
pomorphic bias. Young students generally draw the
hands and feet too small, because small hands and feet
are thought to be becoming. On the other hand they
make the face too large for the head because it occupies
a corresponding share of their attention.
But to a great extent this neglect of proportion arises
from bad method, which goes along with confused
vision. The drawing is often begun at the top and
worked downwards, the student trusting to his luck to
get the whole on the paper. Hence the legs get crowded
into less than their share of the space, or the feet perhaps
have to be omitted.
Too often the student proceeds in a random waywhich positively stultifies feeling for proportion. Oneoften sees drawings slipping off the paper, as it were, or
pushed to right or left, without artistic reason for so
doing.
Right methods will do much towards securing pro-
portion. No details should be drawn at first, but a line
from head to foot establishing the whole form. Every
figure, every object will furnish some such line. This
line once found, the proportion of the parts can proceed
steadily and safely.
1
6
DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
The preparation of "blocking out" is often strangely-
misunderstood by the student, who produces a mere
scribble of the figure, full of badly scrawled detail,
features, fingers and toes dashed in anyhow, and criti-
cism is countered by the casual remark that the drawing
is "only sketched in." Such method, or want of it, is
vicious in every way. Every line from first to last
should be well considered, so that at any stage the draw-
ing may be workmanlike, in good proportion, and ex-
pressive of the model, so far as it has been taken.
Bad proportion often results from looking along the
contours rather than surveying, taking in the mass of the
object. An early attempt should be made to see all the
figure from head to foot.
One may put it in this way, that so long as beginners
are pre-occupied with detail in contour, that is, with the
forms, without making the necessary preparation of
noting their directions, failure to secure good proportion
is inevitable.
Obviously one corrective is to draw the whole figure
every time. The art teacher is familiar with the lying
excuse of the student who for want of room omits the
legs, that he did not intend to draw them. Such scraps
of figures defeat one of the great aims of the study.
The figure prepared or indicated, the student can
then concentrate on a passage that appeals specially to
him, but set out from head to foot it must be, if the
exercise is to be of any value as a study in proportion,
or of the action of the figure.
This method gives the clue to the treatment of the
vexed question of erasure. One sometimes sees a student
PROPORTION. 17
rubbing out, or trying to do so, a large portion of a draw-
ing at a comparatively late stage. Such alteration is
mere vexation of spirit, and an acknowledgment of a
bad beginning. With a studentlike and artistic com-
mencement little or no erasure is necessary, for the pro-
portions should be fixed by the first strokes planted upon
the paper. This requires a certain firmness and patience
on the part of the teacher, and a self-denial and inhibitive
power not always readily at the command of the student,
who comes to the study of the model with the notion that
it is possible and commendable to transfer that figure
bodily to the paper. For has he not seen this done in
the work of the artists he most admires ?
Generally the procedure is this. The beginner com-
mences to draw the figure in a "blocking out" of his ownfashion. Horrified at the starkness of his effort, he
hurriedly covers over the first lines with detail, hoping
thus to secure likeness, with the result that a figure
appears represented by contour lines and looking bone-
less and sawdust stuffed. Hence the necessity of the stu-
dent learning what is at first alien from his thought, (pre-
occupied as he is with realizing the object or figure before
him), that there is a stage which comes before drawing,
namely preparation, in which the placing on the paper,
the proportions, and the directions of the forms have to
be studied or analysed without reference to naturalistic
treatment. It may be safely said that many students
leave art study without having secured the discipline
and training which rigorous search after a good prepara-
tion alone can give.
To some students it is an objection that these first
1
8
DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
strokes get in the way of the drawing", have to be rubbed
out, spoil the paper, etc. To this one may reply that
neatness is but a minor virtue in drawing study. Clean-
liness has been said to come next to godliness, but it
certainly lags a long way bi^ind.
As a matter of fact the first strokes disappear under
the later work, and if rightly placed are astonishingly
useful as part of the completed study. The form comes
perhaps just outside or inside the first line. In the work
of the genius (?) who draws his line and his detail all
"at one go," the result is seen in knotty swollen contours,
mere exaggerations of the form.
Students often use a sheet of paper upon which to
rest their hands in order to avoid soiling their drawing.
They thus compel themselves to draw piecemeal, stulti-
fying their feeling for proportion, and losing the inestim-
able advantage of seeing the whole of their work all the
time.
Many poses, especially where the figure is seated or
reclining, suggest a simple pyramidal or triangular con-
struction such as shown in fig. i. If the sides of the
triangle are right in direction, which is easily ascertained
by holding the pencil against the model and comparing
with the lines on the paper, then the triangle is similar
to that formed by the pose, and the proportions there-
fore are correct. This enables the student to proceed
with the drawing without hesitation and embarrassment
;
the mind being at rest as regards the first lines undivided
attention can be given to construction and artistic ex-
pression.
As far as possible drawings should be made sight
'^~:-^SsJ._.'i-^rS :,:*.
Fig. I—Sketches of seated or reclining figures \vho3c proportions are easily
ascertained by assuming them contained in triangles.
'9
-s f=
I--
PROPORTION. 21
size, that is the size of a tracing on a pane of glass held
before the model. Faults in proportion often occur in
drawings commenced somewhat larger than sight size,
for as the student works, he forgets the scale with which
he started, with the result that the proportions of his
extremities and details tend towards sight size, that is too
small for the general proportions of the drawing.
CHAPTER IV.
TYPE FORMS.
Young students, promoted to the antique or life
class, are apt to shake hands with themselves on their
emancipation from the thraldom of perspective and
model drawing. No more cubes and cylinders, say they
in effect; we shall now feast our eyes on sinuous form
and subtle modelling.
They have, however, to learn that the principles of
appearance are invariable, and apply equally to the
representation of living form and inanimate objects.
For example, every time the face is drawn, unless its
relation with the eye level be appreciated, the student is
certain to have trouble. If the model's head is on a level
with the student's, the drawing may pass muster, even if
no attention has been paid to perspective, but if the eye
be below or above, then the law of receding parallels
must be observed if the features are to be intelligently
represented.
Again, beginners often fail to observe the planes of
the head. Especially is this so in regard to the three
planes of the front and side views, with the result that
the students are unable properly to place the ear, which
TYPE FORMS. 23
persists in coming forward in a distressing way. (fig. 3).
All forms, omitting the
sphere, may be derived from
two type forms, the square
prism and cylinder. Of course
by multiplying the faces of the
prism one arrives eventually at
the cylinder, but it will be con-
venient to keep them separate
because each represents a dif-
ferent method of construction.
The cone and pyramid may be
ignored because as shownin FIG. 4 they are derived from the cylinder and square
prism respectively.
Fig. 4.
The representation in perspective of objects based
upon the square prism, depends upon the apparent
convergence of parallels, which is another way of saying
2+ DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
that things appear smaller as they are removed from the
eye.
But the cylinder, though for the purposes of formal
perspective considered as embedded within a square
prism, and involving a somewhat intricate construction
for obtaining the curve of the circle in perspective, as
regards its circular end, needs not the aid of receding
parallels, because when foreshortened, the circle appears
as an ellipse, which should be drawn as such without any
construction other than determining the direction of its
long axis (always at right angles with the axis of the
cylinder).
Most natural organic forms are based on the cylinder
as the trunk and limbs of animals, including humanbeings, (though for purposes of representation these are
better considered as based on the square prism), and most
stems of plants and trees. Of fashioned objects, all
pottery and other objects of wood or metal produced by
some form of turning or lathe work, are based on the
cylinder, as also tinware bent or beaten around
cylindrical moulds.
Based on the square prism are framed structures as
furniture and buildings, which man finds it convenient
to construct with the right-angle. In the same category
are building materials as bricks, cement and wroughtstone, also boxes, books, etc.
Fig. 5 shows the principle of constructing the
cylinder which should be followed, no matter what maybe the position. It is true that some students, remem-bering their lessons in formal perspective, laboriously
construct a prism first, but this is dreadful slavery and
TYPE FORMS. 2S
unnecessary, since the two straight lines forming the
sides, and the two ellipses stare one in the face. Somestudents construct the ellipse on its long and short
diameters, but these aids ruin the feeling for the curve.
Sometimes the ends appear pointed owing to the fact
that arcs of circles have been drawn. As a matter of
fact no progress in object drawing is possible until the
Fig. 5.
straight line and ellipse can be drawn freely in any
position with a single movement of the hand and arm.
If the student lacks this facility five minutes practice at a
blackboard every day for a week at squares, circles and,
ellipses will set him free of these forms for life. Onemay observe that beginners are apt to draw the lower
half of the horizontal ellipse flatter than the upper—to
notice the defect is to cure it.
To the student who is content to subordinate himself
to authority—and all really great artists have done this
in their student days,—this constant reference to the
type forms is no trammel, but a help, supplying him at
once with a standard of form and a method of drawing.
The head has been referred to as an approximation to
26 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
the prism. The wrist is another detail of the figure
which gives trouble to students. The teacher has con-
stantly to point out the way the wrist forms a link
between hand and arm, how it modifies the contour of
the arm, and the distressing effect caused by the failure
of the student to see the wrist.
The male wrist may be compared in shape- and size
with a large box of matches, and this prism coming
between the more cylindrical form of the forearm and
the flattened form of the hand,
gives this part of the arm its
characteristic shape, (fig. 6).
Coming to the figure as ia
whole, the student must relate
the great planes of the body
with the faces of the prism, or
fall under the penalty of fail-
ing to secure vigorous model-
ling.
The straight edge of the
prism representing the head is
replaced by the undulating line of forehead, cheek-bone,
cheek and jaw, where it turns from the light (fig. 3), and
this line marks the intersection of front and side of
head, two planes which present great difficulties to
beginners obsessed as they are by the features. It
should be borne in mind that the edge in question is a
contour when seen from another point of view, and that
it must relate with the contour of the further side of the
head. All this applies with equal force to the trunk
Fig. 6.
TYPE FORMS. 27
and limbs. The squareness of the trunk especially
should be seized upon, otherwise a woolly unstructural
roundness is apt to result. This intersection of the
front and sides of the torse is very complicated and
broken, but must be watched for. (fig. 22).
This principle of the great planes is shown very
clearly in the statues of the Egyptians. Often the limbs
are absorbed so that the finished figure remains as a
block. The reason, of course, lay in the material, the
hardness of which prevented the sculptor from indulg-
ing in undercutting and over-modelling, (fig. 7).
Ruskin, whose prac-
tical art teaching is always
worth consideration, gave
close attention to type
forms. His remarks in
"Modern Painters" on
the construction of trees,
etc., should be read care-
fully. His analyses of
cloud forms is also very
interesting and useful.
All cloud systems
should be considered as
horizontal. The vanish-
ing line presents some
difficulty, as owing to
the earth's rotundity, the
cloud horizon line is a
little lower than that ofFig. 7.
the earth, but the point is not of much importance. A
28 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
good exercise is a sky full of cumulus clouds, which may
be likened to a number of match boxes held at a level
above the eye. (fig. 8).
The landscape painter, Boudin, should be studied
for his simple systems of clouds in which the horizon-
tality is carefully observed. An example of his work is
to be seen in the National Gallery.
f^^ lO;^ a::^.
Fig. 8.
When clouds are approaching the eye or receding
directly from it, the appearance is sometimes that of a
"vertical" sky, but even in this case every effort should
be made to determine the horizontal surfaces, without
which the effect of distance cannot be secured.
Students often lose their grip of type forms whendrawing from a pose more or less recumbent. Thebench upon which the figure is lying will, if carefully
observed, supply the general directions of the latter.
(fig. 2). Neglect of these simple lines accounts for
TYPE FORMS. 29
many failures to secure correct fore-shortening. Thesame may be said of quadrupeds, as dogs and horses,
drawings of which often look vague and unstable
Fic. 9.
because their relation with the type prism is not suffi-
ciently appreciated, (fig. 9). A well-known advertise-
ment depicts in an alpine landscape a cow much too long
for its height, because the prism which forms its under-
lying shape has not been properly foreshortened.
CHAPTER V.
CONSTRUCTION.
No word is on the art teacher's lips more constantly
than "construction." Therefore, as with other technical
terms, it is most necessary that the student shall under-
stand the word in the sense that the teacher uses it. All
specialists are apt to utter a jargon, when they imagine
themselves to be talking with the utmost simplicity, and
only by constant questioning and discussion can teachers
be sure that they and their students are in agreement as
to the meaning of the terms used.
This word "construction" has two distinct meanings,
both used indiscriminately by artists. First "construc-
tion" may mean the actual build of the object. To take
a tin pail as example we may note that it is made from
a sheet of metal bent into a cone, the two edges being
lapped and soldered, that a flat strip is bent into a
cylinder, lapped and riveted to form a base, and that
the handle is semi-circular in form, composed of a strip
bent on itself to give rigidity. One might continue in
detail until the entire construction has been investigated.
The second use of the word refers to the construction
of the drawing, an entirely different thing. When one
3°
CONSTRUCTION. 31
speaks of a drawing being well-constructed, one meansthat it is built up of lines and tones which suggest the
actual construction of the object depicted.
Nothing is more difficult to the beginner than the
advice to construct the drawing. He sees the model in
all its complexity before him, and with a preconceived
notion that drawing is imitation, cannot abstract his gaze
from the details in order to search for the long enclosing
lines of the figure, and those which indicate its build.
A great deal will have been learned if the beginner
has been already taught to set up work in clay. In a
way, the modeller is obliged to "construct" his study, for
he cannot at once arrive at a contour. He has to build
his model up in simple planes before he can think of the
surface modelling, though even here teachers of
modelling speak with sorrow of the way students
evade the problems of constructive modelling, and the
haste with which they attempt the more superficial
qualities before their study has been carefully set upwith the great planes. On paper it is fatally easy to
begin with surface markings before setting down the
main lines of construction. There are two classes of
students inclined to ignore construction—first the
beginners who can see nature only as a mass of detail,
and secondly those students, clever with their fingers,
who fancy they can draw well enough without the trouble
of "blocking out," and who arrive at a result, by means
of their facility, which they think justifies them in ignor-
ing construction. To the latter class of students one
may say that a judge of drawing can tell unerringly howit was produced, and can see, through the facile execu-
32 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
tion, the wealcnesses owing to lack of construction.
Further, the greater an artist, the more likely is he thor-
oughly to construct his drawing.
Constructive drawing really means concentrated
intellectual vision in the early stages, and presents this
difficulty, that it is precisely at this time that students,
owing to want of training, are looking at the model with
embarrassment and uncertainty, which result in slurred
and fumbling drawing. Many students, indeed, begin
to draw after a cursory glance. The model should be
well scrutinized for some little time before drawing is
commenced. It is during the first few minutes that the
drawing is made or marred. Further work adds detail,
but substantially the drawing remains the same. This
is perhaps the most important caution that can be written
about drawing. As already mentioned, what generally
happens is that students begin to sketch out the pose and
proportions t)f the model in a more or less haphazard
way, and being stricken with horror at its aspect, add
detail after detail in the hope of making it "more like."
To some extent the preliminary construction of a
drawing has been dealt with under the head of type
forms. The essential lines are those which give at once
the movement and the mass : these are not necessarily
based on actual outlines. A standing pose is best com-
menced with a line from the pit of the neck to the heel
of the foot supporting the weight. Shoulders are often
drawn as two isolated forms, the result of aimless
wandering round the contours, giving the impression of a
boneless figure, a rag doll stuffed with sawdust.
Attention to the lines of the collar bones, sternum, arch
CONSTRUCTION. 33
of ribs and pelvis will correct this as regards the torse.
The legs are especially prone to look like Christmas
stockings, because the inner lines of structure have been
omitted. The bulk of the knee, the line of the tibia (in
the front view), the lines defining the ankle, and suggest-
ing the stirrup-like movement of the foot within the
ankle, and the backward swing of the heel are important.
Especially should be noted a forward direction in the
side view of the leg above the ankle, due to the tendon
of the tibialis anticus. This escapes many students,
with the result that the leg takes on a lumpy, Indian
club-like look. This change of direction, though slight
in the leg, is to be seen clearly in the forearm, where the
thumb muscles crop up varying the contours in harmonywith that from elbow to wrist. It should be noted that
the angle forming the crook of the arm is considerably
above the elbow, owing to the position of the supinators.
In the knee joint the hamstring tendons cause the angle
at the back to come lower than that in front. In both
cases students often show great perseverance in trying to
place these angles at the same level with distressing
results. It should be added in regard to these torsions
and variations that at almost any point a hollow is
balanced by a swelling on the opposite contour.
Examples of the above constructional points may be
observed in the figure drawings reproduced in these
pages.
The student who wishes to progress should constantly
submit his drawing to those more advanced for detailed
criticism of his construction.
CHAPTER VI.
TONE STUDY—PRELIMINARY.
Young students, especially if they have been kept at
outline work, consider it a great privilege to be allowed
to "shade," and the unfortunate distinction they draw
between "drawing" and "shading" is responsible for
their oftentimes slow progress in the study of form.
First the terms used must be explained and adhered
to. Here, as in ordinary speech, the "shadow" is cast by
the object on a surface, while the "shade" on the object
is divided from the light portion by the "line of shade."
It should be noted that if the object rests on the
ground the line of shade is continuous with the shadowedge and encloses a space of dark. (fig. 14). This is
often ignored by beginners, who divide the area into two
portions, shade and shadow, which to their sharp sighted
eyes is clearly separated by the reflected light on the
edge of the rounded object. Thus students under the
influence of that anthropomorphic bias already men-tioned, will draw the shade area of a limb yet leave its
cast shadow adjoining, to be completed later because
they deem a shadow to be negligible compared with anobject.
H
TONE STUDY—PRELIMINARY. 35
The line of shade is of great importance because it
represents a contour seen from the direction of the light.
It may be grey and indefinite when the light-area is ex-
tensive, as a large window admitting daylight, or sharp
and dark when the luminant is a point of artificial light,
but it is always present. Students sometimes shade as if
the dark gradually merged into the light. This is a con-
vention which is not supported by observation, and
should be discouraged.
A certain amount of light is reflected to the object
from the floor, walls, etc. This is not traceable on the
side towards the light, but may be observed in the shade
area, especially a contour in shade. It follows that the
shade area appears darkest as it approaches the light
area, that is to say near the edge of shade. The rule as
stated in art school diction is that "the darkest dark is
near the lightest light." This is clearly seen in small
isolated darks.
The forms within a shade area often present great
difficulties to beginners, who see them necessarily byreflected light. They outline these forms with black,
or darken unduly the concavities, and are distressed to
find that these lines and darks persist in coming forward,
and ruin the unity of the shade area. To remedy this
they should note an interesting contrast between the
conditions of the expression of forms in (i) areas in light
and (2) areas in shade.
First, the surface forms in the light are expressed
by darks, excepting, of course, the high lights. The eye-
lids are defined by darks below the brows, the nose and
lips by darks, and the ear by lines and patches of dark.
36 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
In the shade areas, however, forms are expressed by
reflections or lights. If this region is indicated by a
general tone, the forms within need little more attention
than the careful working of the reflected lights. Ofcourse, an actual cavity receiving no reflected light, such
as the nostril or ear orifice, may have to be darkened,
but otherwise the principle holds good.
Between the two areas there is another important
.difference. According to the intensity of light the forms
in the light areas are well defined, and show clearly. In
the shade area forms are ill-defined, edges are soft,
somewhat as we notice shapes in twilight when men look
"like trees walking." All painters from Rubens onwards
have been well aware of this. Rubens used his impasto
for his light areas, but was particularly careful to keep
the forms within his darks quiet.
Similarly the student when working at the shade area
must remember to hold the reflected lights under con-
trol. Too often he emphasizes them until they actually
look like "lights" blazing out of the darkness, as if the
figure were lit from within, or made of glass or china.
Or again he strengthens with dark the outlines of the
forms within the shade area, with the result that they
refuse to retire, and obstinately stand forward. There
can be no hard lines in the shade, owing to want of
illumination.
As the luminant is generally from above, the darks
in light areas occur below the forms, while the mainreflection, coming from below, the reflected light is seen
in the upper part of the concavities of the forms, muchas the footlights illuminate those parts of the actor's
TONE STUDY—PRELIMINARY. 37
features. Fig. ioa shows the general principle of work-
ing both light and dark areas. The drawing was madeby artificial light.
CHAPTER VII.
TONE STUDY—EXERCISES.
The art student takes great interest in materials, as
witness the prosperity of the artists' colourmen, and
certainly the proper selection of materials and their right
use will go far to assist him in his career. It will be well
to glance at the commonly used drawing materials
found in the art schools.
The drawings of the masters of the renaissance show
the use of charcoal, black and red chalk, the pen and
sometimes gold and silver points, and these continued to
be the main weapons of the art student until the intro-
duction of plumbago or black lead, although the black
chalk point remained a favourite implement, the
enormous cartoon by Maclise in the Diploma Gallery
of the Royal Academy, of the meeting of Wellington
and Blucher, being drawn with it; So much time, how-
ever, was wasted by students stippling up their chalk
drawings with a finely pointed crayon that the stumpwas adopted as tending to broader work. Unfortunately
this result was not achieved, for students found that bya Hexterous and continued manipulation of the stumpon suitable paper, a lustrous and pearly texture was
38
TONE STUDY—EXERCISES. 39
obtained. This could be again refined upon, by touch-
ing with a finely pointed chalk, and by "breading out"
black spots, prodigies of industry being performed on
such drawings. Thus did the misapplied industry of
students defeat the efforts of teachers.
The stump has also other disadvantages besides this
great one, of enabling a drawing to look better than it is
in the eyes of its producer. The stump touch is always
indeterminate or "muzzy," and where a sharpened edge
is required bread or indiarubber must be used. This
handicap causes an indirectness in the method. Thestudent fumbles with the stump and then corrects with
rubber, whereas a weapon capable of more direct and
trenchant action must be put in his hand if he is to gain
mastery over line and form. Also in spite of its
indirectness the stump, with its ally the rubber, can be
made to produce drawings hard and tinny in character,
and students have been known to apply paper masks to
the drawing and then rub vigorously with bread, thus
obtaining that clear hard contour which they supposed
the authorities wanted.
What then is the best material for drawing practice ?,
The student, it must be remembered, requires an imple-
ment which will allow him to search for form ; it must be
to some extent tentative, allowing him to withdraw some-
what if he has overshot the mark. The black crayon
does not meet this need, for any erasure alters the char-
acter of the tone, making it smoky or smeared. This
applies also in some measure to the lead pencil, an
implement capable of producing beautiful effects, but
hardly one for study. It must be used directly or
40 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
greasiness results, also it misses the definite black of the
chalk. Moreover the pencil is the implement for
writing, and students when using the lead for drawing
still go on writing, making zigzag, scratchy marks with
the fingers, often closely resembling written words, which
the teacher may pretend to decipher much to the disgust
of his pupil.
Charcoal meets most of the requirements very well.
It is easily removed, allowing several trials of the first
stage of a drawing if reasonably used. It varies from
the soft velvety black of a well burnt stick to one under-
burnt, and as hard as an H pencil. From a dense black,
by a sweep of the finger, the tone can be lightened in a
beautiful gradation up to the tone of the paper. Noother implement gives gradation without great labour,
and this labour, as mentioned above, is apt to degenerate
into stippling.
By using the softer grades of charcoal in the early
stage of the drawing, full emphasis of form and rich con-
trasts of tone can be readily obtained, while for .detailed
expression, harder charcoal will give all the definition
that can be obtained with a pencil, chalk or stump.
Chaircoal is, of course, sharpened backwards, like a chalk
point. It should be used with a paper of square grain
like that known as Michallet or Ingres. Lights may be
emphasized with bread, ordinary indiarubber being use-
less with charcoal, though "putty" rubber and tinder
ma,de from fungus may be used.
The student commencing the study of light andshade is often kept to the whitened models and casts
whereas what he requires for the development of his per-
Fic. 10—A drawing in charcoal from an anticjue head.
Fig. Ioa is a diagrammatic drawing showing the difference in
treatment between the forms in light and shade areas respectively.
4^
TONE STUDY—EXERCISES. 43
ception of tone is work from objects of varying tones and
textures. The ordinary still life group fulfils these con-
glitions fairly well.
If a simple group, say of three or four main tones, is
set up, the student is at once faced with an exercise in
composition. Any group may be treated as a square,
upright, or oblong composition. The square being
generally the refuge of the weak-minded composer and
eliminated, a series of small sketches should be madeuntil a satisfactory solution is obtained.
Now will come a tussle between the student's utili-
tarian or anthropomorphic tendencies, and his artistic
vision. He is very apt, from past experience and pre-
judices, to grade the objects he sees according to the
agreed value set upon them by mankind. A bottle being
an object made by man to hold liquid necessary or
grateful to him, the student ranks as the most important
object present, and if allowed, will work away at it
supremely indifferent to the remainder of the group.
Another difficulty crops up here. The student from his
childhood has been constantly exhorted by his parents
and teachers to "do one thing at a time." This maxinl
he is apt to carry out by drawing an'd finishing the various
items in a group one after another. He has to be taught
that in artistic practice "one thing at a time" though just
as important as in everyday life, means something quite
different from what is in his mind.
Therefore the student will not make much progress
until he sees the parts of the group as tones of various
shapes. Especially should he refrain from carefully
outlining each object by itself without relation to its
44 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
neighbour. At first he will probably find it difficult to
put down indications of the objects in order to place
them as desired. These first steps in a drawing as
mentioned elsewhere, demand all the teacher's patience
and the pupil's willingness to accept admonition, for they
do not accord with the latter's preconceived notions.
Above all he must not for a moment be allowed to
imagine that charcoal being a substance allied with ashes
and soot will not allow of delicacy and refinement of
handling, and that these preparatory steps of placing
and sketching in the main masses may be taken care-
lessly.
The masses having been indicated before any
elaborate contouring is attempted, the main tones of the
group should be set down firmly, with a soft stick of
charcoal, and now the student should enjoy the effective
use of tone which can be readily obtained with charcoal.
Placed near the group, the drawing should give the sametone effect even in this early stage.
The forms of the objects may now be attended to,
ellipses and other forms being carefully drawn. Atten-
tion should also be given to the flan of the group. It
is easy enough to indicate the vertical aspects of things,
but the position they occupy on a horizontal surface, that
is the plan, is apt to be ignored. The student might be
required to indicate the plan of his group on a scrap of
paper, and to compare it with the actual position of the
objects. By this means interpenetration of the objects
is detected.
In order more completely to express the surface
forms one of two methods may be followed. The char-
TONE STUDY—EXERCISES. 45
coal may be sharpened and the whole gone over, until it
is well worked into the grain of the paper. This is a
laborious process and calculated to disgust an ardent
student. The second method consists in rubbing in the
tones with the finger, stump, rag or brush, always re-
specting a very dark tone such as that representing the
black of a bottle. If rubbed, this becomes smeared and
dull. Some darks will now require strengthening, and
the pellet of bread pressed between the fingers into a
chisel shape may be used to take out lights, not as is
often supposed, to make alterations or correct errors,
which should have been done in the earlier stages of the
drawing. Just as the charcoal makes with readiness
dark forms, so the bread is an implement for shaping
lights.
Lastly comes careful edge study. It should be noted
that the places where the edges melt into the adjacent
tone demand as much study as the definite edge. For
instance a black bottle will probably have some part
adjacent to shade, and the edge in this area may appear
lighter (owing to reflection) than the tone behind it. All
the edges must be followed and dealt with on this prin-
ciple, yet the study should show the aim with which it
was commenced—the representation of a few masses of
varying tones. If these tones have become confused in
the progress of the work, the study will have fallen short
of success as an exercise in tone.
The exercise may seem humdrum to those like
Rosetti, who scorned pots and bottles, and wanted to
paint angels, yet it may safely be said that to attempt oil
painting without the discipline afforded by a course of
46 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
form and tone drawing on some such lines as these, is
to court failure. The problems of tone are here pre-
sented in the simplest way, and solved by the simplest
means. The student who commences to study tone by
means of oil monochrome, has such a varied equipment
to contend with, that a great deal of his time and atten-
tion is occupied with his implements, his paints, palette,
brushes and palette knife, paint rag, vehicles, etc. In
charcoal he has a simple material which gives at once the
most velvety blacks and palest greys, is amenable to
varying degrees of manipulative skill, and lends itself to
the rough sketch or complete expression. Also, unlike
the stump, it does not delude the student with an ex-
traneous beauty of surface. Anything approaching ex-
cellence to be seen on the paper, is deserved, and, unlike
watercolour, it affords no lucky accidents. Figs, ii, 12,
13 are examples of still life studies made with charcoal
on Michallet paper, and show that this medium allows
of the drawing being carried as far as may be desired.
Fif-. 12 A charcnal stuJ\- \\hich sIioh's how far the material will allov\'
of a drawing being carrieel.
47
Fic. 14.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE FIGURE—INTRODUCTORY.
Students usually pass through the antique before
being promoted to the life class. It is held that by
working from casts they have time to gain facility in
method, and also some knowledge of human propor-
tions, both' very needful, before attacking the living
figure.
That this latter study requires all the equipment the
student can command need not be questioned, but though
young students may not be able to use their materials
skilfully, and may not have a keen sense of proportion,
they are familiar with the living figure, for they are
human themselves, and acquainted in a practical waywith their own structure.
On the other hand all art teachers must be aware of
the disadvantages of using the antique as a sole means of
training. The student cannot see the classical figures
as the sculptor creatqd them in marble or bronze, cannot
see them as part of an architectural whole, and viewed
thus, torn from their past, in the antique classroom, the
3ull plaster does not stir his artistic consciousness. He(does not perceive the. subtle variations from the living
form, by which the sculptor sought to express his idea of
a god-like person. The fine proportions and flow of line
49
so DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
escape him, and above all the statues stand so quietly
that he finds himself quietening in his attack ; he invol-
untarily slows down and loses that touch of fever which
counts for so much in the study of drawing.
In ordinary school life educationists postpone an
abstract study like grammar until the child mind has
developed sufficiently to take interest in the train of
thought. So it is with art students, who, after working
from the living model, willingly turn to the antique, and
study it with more profit and more enthusiasm for its
noble qualities than would have been possible to them
coming to it without preparation. The problems of the
human figure they now see presented in typical form, and
they recognise a canon of proportion which they can more
readily grasp, after having observed the great variations
in a series of living models.
Coming now to the study of the living figure, the
student should understand that a great deal more than
mere copying is implied, for it embodies many aspects of
art study, spacing, composition, structure, and especially
proportion.
There are certain difficulties which will surely meet
the beginner, and these it may be well to discuss. First
the anthropomorphic attitude of mind on the part of the
student already referred to must be combated by the
teacher. The former is likely to be obsessed by the
figure before him to the extent that the necessity for
imitation seems all important. The drawing, he thinks,
must be made as like the figure as possible. In other
words the student's power of selection is dormant.
There are so many things to be attended to that the
THE FIGURE—INTRODUCTORY. Ji
drawing is apt to be a mere assembling of members,
trunk, limbs, etc., to say nothing of details such as
fingers and toe-nails.
The teacher, therefore, has to point out the aims of
drawing from the figure. These are not necessarily to
recreate a material person by the accumulation of parts,
and especially not to emphasize the nakedness of the
figure, as beginners are prone to do. The figure is
selected as a special subject of study because the nudeform presents problems of line and structure more'directly and trenchantly than any other material which
can be set before him.
What should the teacher emphasize as the first step
in studying the living figure? The answer may be
given in a word
—
movement ! The living figure is
posing in a state of suspended animation, and a sense of
movement there must be in any position of the figure.
Either the movement has preceded the pose, or the
latter is about to pass into action.
Beginners are often oblivious of this sense of arrested
movement. Their figures are lumpy and stiff, and they
rarely or never give as much action as the figure displays.
If, say, the torse leans, they diminish the amount of
inclination so that the figure seems to be sitting upright,
or nearly so. Especially is this seen in the pose of the
head, which often inclines in order to balance an
obliquity of the torse or limbs. The novice rarely sees
this. To him all heads are upright at attention. It maybe said here that what the student suffers from in every
branch of drawing is not, as he supposes, an unskilled
hand, but an untrained eye. The teacher's efforts are
52 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
constantly directed to the development of the visual
faculty, the power of analysing, judging inclinations,
measuring proportions, finding the lines which indicate
the structure, in all of which the eye needs to be trained.
Cleverness, a kind of juggling, which produces effects
akin to the lightning sketches at an entertainment, maybe deemed essential by an indiscriminating public, but
such ideas must be gently laughed out of a school of art,
if they ever find utterance there.
It is to the eye then that the main course of direction
and criticism should be directed. Even plumbing and
measuring should be used only as a secondary aid, to
corroborate criticism, for if these mechanical aids are
employed too freely, the eye suffers and loses self-reli-
ance.
Coming to the question of movement we realise at
once that it is represented through direction. All
figures, torses or limbs have a general direction, and
these inclinations can be suggested by lines. A seated
figure can be represented in direction by three lines.
(fig. 15.) Students unwilling to commence a study
with such simple preparation generally show in their
work a lack of vitality and movement; they begin by
seizing on the forms, and consequently the general idea
escapes them. The mischief occurs at the commence-
ment of the drawing. No amount of delicate detail, if it
be drawn piecemeal, will compensate for the lack of
intelligent construction. The whole figure should be
surveyed at the outset. Too often the eye wanders
round the contours, with the result that the drawing lacks
proportion and movement.
Fig. 15—Sketches showing the first lines or "directions" which settle the
movement of the figure and its proportions.
53
Fig 1 6—A drawing made with charcoal on Michallet. Theappearance of weight and solidity is due as much to the quality
of the line as to the shading.
54
THE FIGURE—INTRODUCTORY. 55
The student then should
determine a line on which to
build the figure, this line occur-
ring perhaps within the contour,
or again coinciding with it.
When drawing a standing
female figure, the student is often
attracted by the rich and ac-
cented forms of the contours of
the breast and hips, with the
result that these features are ex-
aggerated. The figure should
be built on a simpler line, in this
case a vertical through the pit of
the neck and ankle of the sup-
porting leg. It should be noted
that this is not an arbitrary line,
but one actually existing in the
pose, being traceable in the
median line of the torse, and
again between the legs., (fig.
I 6a).
Such a simple commence-
ment is unpopular with thi
student, for it is head work, an
requires studious analysis of the
forms.
Unfortunately also the be-
ginner has often acquired, from
old habit and force of tradition a
method of drawing which con^
56 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
sists generally in beginning at the top and de-
scending piecemeal till the feet are reached, that is if
there is room for them. Such a vicious method is
common even among students possessing great facility.
The case may be compared with that of a language
student who has never heard French spoken, and is
surprised when his tutor tells him he has a wretched
accent, though he is entirely unconscious of having
acquired it. Ingres used to say "Don't draw one by
one and in succession, the head, then the torso, then the
arms, and so forth. If you did you would be bound to
fail in reproducing the harmony of the whole effect.
Rather set yourself to fix the relative proportions exist-
ing between the several parts, and to gain the mastery
over the life and motion, and in giving expression to this
action, don't be afraid of exaggeration. What you have
to fear is lukewarmness."
The teacher has another difficulty to face. He should
not impose his own way of seeing on his pupils, andthus deprive them of their individuality, nor seek to bias
their own self-expression. A student's feeling for formmay perchance be somewhat stark, indeed may verge onugliness, to the point of exaggerating or caricaturing the
form, but the wise teacher will be shy of admonishing'
such a student, of advising him to look for smoothness^
grace or beauty, because character, individuality andstrength may be the chief note in that pupil's future
work. There is room in the world of art for all mannerof individual expression. The touchstone is whether it
is sincere. Imitation, posing, conscious seeking after a
THE FIGURE—INTRODUCTORY. S7
Style on the part of students cannot be too loudly con-
demned.
But where the student's work is wanting because of
his lack of method or of knowledge of materials, the
teacher is on firm ground. The student must be taught
everything, even how to hold a pencil or brush. In
matters of method and of the use of the implements of
his craft, he should put himself entirely in the hands of
his teacher, who cannot guide his students unless they
trust him.
That introduces the question whether the teacher
should work at the model before or with his students, or
confine himself entirely to the ofi&ce of adviser and critic.
The exponents of the new modes of teaching, as
practised in junior schools, incline to the latter view.
They say that directly a teacher demonstrates before his
scholars, he is biassing their vision, is preventing their
seeing the object for themselves, and is obtruding his
own vision of things to the detriment of their personal
expression. This is very true provided that the teacher's
inhibition does not extend to method, which, as pointed
out above, must be taught; but there is another aspect
of the relations between teacher and pupils, an aspect
which is of special importance in dealing with art
students who are spending all their hours at the same
study. They are apt to be discouraged after long toil-
ing, and consequently may be tempted to look upon their
teacher as he visits them on his rounds, merely as critic,
carper and fault-finder. This is a real danger, and it is
in die power of the teacher to overcome it. If he is wise
he will regard himself not as one aloof, in another sphere.
58 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
that of the professional artist who occasionally con-
descends to criticise the efforts of the novice, but in the
much closer relationship of an elder brother, who is
willing to work at the same tasks as his pupils. It is
certainly dangerous always to paint and draw before the
students, but to work with them occasionally is to exhibit
a spirit of comradeship which at once stimulates the class
to its best efforts.
Again a student sometimes confesses inability to pro-
ceed with an exercise, and if the teacher is convinced that
the case is genuine, and works on the drawing, showing
in what ways the pupil's vision has fallen short, and
giving a demonstration of how far a drawing may be
carried, much good may result.
From this it follows that the student should not flag
or sulk at the continuance of his task while the teacher is
willing to interest himself in it. R. A. M. Stevenson, in
his life of Velasquez, has some interesting comments on
the methods of the great teacher Carolus Duran, which
should be read by all students, weak-kneed or otherwise.
In order to secure proportion students should work at
a distance of some yards from the model. Then the
natural tendency to draw sight size can be utilized. Byholding up the drawing alongside the model (fig. 17)
the proportion may be checked very effectually.
Students should never be admonished to "draw large,"
"to fairly fill the paper," because violence is thus doneto the natural scale of the drawing, the eye and handtravelling, as it were, at the same rate. This is the mostdirect road to good proportion, and, as Mr. WalterSickert has pointed out, was the method of the masters.
THE FIGURE—INTRODUCTORY. 59
If the drawing is too small in scale to allow of adequate
treatment, the student should go nearer the model or
use a finer point.
Fig. 17.
The drawing should be frequently viewed at arm's
length. Students often hold the drawing too close, sa
that the lower half of the paper is practically out of sight,
with a consequent detriment to the proportions.
A few words may be said on the vexed question of
6o DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
backgrounds. Some teachers, in their zeal for complete
expression, insist that their students shall indicate the
tone of the background, with any accessories that may be
present. This it must be contended, is a mistaken view,
for backgrounds imply tone study, but drawing from the
figure is not merely an exercise in tone; structure, flow
of line, composition, etc., demand their share of atten-
tion. The student is not concerned with the photo-
graphic aspect of the figure, nor is he studying tone as
such ; other exercises can be devised for that side of art
study. To make tone studies of the figure with its back-
ground is to degrade it from its high purpose ; but this
does not imply that it should be drawn as existing by
itself—isolated in space, for by the use of expressive line
the tone of background can be suggested. The degree of
emphasis of the edge treatment will show whether the
background is darker or lighter than the general tone of
the figure. This aspect is considered in detail in the
remarks on Edge Study.
CHAPTER IX.
THE FIGURE—THE SEARCH FOR FORM.
The beginner often shares the general opinion of the
outside public that drawing is a kind of legerdemain, a
conjuring trick done with clever fingers, a tour de fqrce
thrown oiEE lightly with no trouble or study. Of course
there are varying degrees of facility among students, andwhere one accomplishes a task with seeming ease, others
may flounder or fail. But the history of art shows
clearly that a want of facility has not prevented men from
achieving fame, while among good judges the exhibition
of cleverness and of smart handling, removes a painter
from the highest place.
The facility of a master of drawing has been attained
by close study, and by what has been called the "search
for form." That is to say mastery over technique does
not come by gaily tracing contours with a pencil, but by
more or less painful efforts to track down the subtleties
of form. It is difficult to make students understand this,
for they suppose that mere practice will give facility,
whereas the eye should be trained by exercises demanH-
ing a rigorous scrutiny of form, and needing all the
intellectual capacity which can be brought to bear.
Drawing from the figure may be divided into two
6i
62 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
main types of exercise. One, very important, is the time
sketch, recording the main facts of the figure, and vary-
ing the method and visual search according to the time
at one's disposal. Generally the time sketch deals
mainly with movement, flow of line, and character as
shown in the pose. Such work requires supplementing
by more searching and detailed expression of form,
which indeed enables the student to arrive at the more
summary methods of the time sketch. The student
who sketches only on a small scale, and for limited
periods of time, will not be sure of himself, nor be aware
of how far he can pursue his scrutiny. In other words,
he has not really learnt \o search for the form.
The materials with which to engage in this detailed
expression of form have not been agreed upon gener-
ally. The pencil or crayon point leads to redundancy of
strokes, and is wanting in breadth. Further, neither
allows of the tentative technique necessary in this kind
of exercise. To mention the stump is to condemn it, for
it is incapable of making a definite stroke.
Charcoal, as indicated elsewhere, supplies the best
weapon for this particular kind of attack. With it can
be produced with ease broad masses of tone, and also,
when well pointed, lines can be drawn as finely as with a
pencil. It has a full range of tone from velvety black
to palest grey.
Figs, io, etc., were drawn with charcoal on Michallet
or other square grained paper, the sheets of which,
measuring about 19" x 24", are of the dimensions most
suitable for normal eyes. If one draws to a larger scale
it is difficult to keep the whole of the drawing under
^^UJ^
M
Fig. I 8—A charcoal drawing much rubbed and otherwise ill-treated since
its completion. An example of edge stud)-. Every inch of the contour
has been carefully studied.
63
p,f,^ ,g This drawing, with all its defects, shows a great interest taken
in the pose by the student and a determination to secure an expression of it.
THE FIGURE—THE SEARCH FOR FORM. 65
surveillance, and errors in proportion, and in gradation
of accent, are apt to occur. Even if drawings, say for a
large mural decoration, were wanted, they should be
drawn first to this scale, and then enlarged by squaring
or other method. There are some life drawings by
Albert Moore, at South Kensington, drawn full size or
nearly so, but the method does not seem to possess com-
pensating advantages.
The procedure is the same as indicated elsewhere.
The student should, as always, mark top and bottom of
his drawing, and at once find the main line from head to
foot. Next follows the general structure of the figure
with a plan lightly sketched in of the masses of dark
tone. It is at this point that the proportions of the draw-
ing should be scrutinized, and if found wanting, the char-
coal strokes, which at first should be light and delicate,
can be obliterated with a few flicks of a duster. It
cannot be emphasized too strongly that this stage is most
crucial, and tests severely a student's powers of selection
and analysis. The drawing, no matter how many hours
or days are required for its completion, will be substan-
tially in proportion, and general scheme of light and
(dark, what it is at an early stage. Hence the importance
of self-criticism, and if necessary of beginning afresh.
No alterations of moment should be made at a late stage.
The time for erasure has then passed, and if great errors
of proportion reveal themselves as the drawing pro-
gresses, they convict the student of heedlessly slurring
over his first steps, and of failing to build on a sure
foundation. Hints on further procedufe are given else-
where.
66 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
With regard to extremities, hands and feet, the char-
coal drawing on Michallet paper gives opportunity for
iworking these out in detail. In some schools such
studies are made full size, and certainly the difficulties
of constructing properly the head, hands and feet
pemand that considerable time shall be spent on them.
(Dn the other hand the nude figure should be used prim-
arily to give right notions of proportion, construction and
movement, and until the student is well grounded in
these, it seems a pity to distract his attention from the
main lines of the figure in order to focus it on detail,
however important. A great deal can be done, as
indicated elsewhere, in showing that the action and con-
struction of the figure demand the consideration of the
extremities, and involve at least construction of their
mass forms. Poor drawings of hands and feet always
show a lack of construction, and of articulation with the
limbs.
Studies from the nude are sometimes almost porno-
graphic in appearance because the student is (quite
innocently) doing the wrong thing. He tries to repro-
(duce a naked person, making a sort of inventory of
physical characteristics, so many fingers, toe-nails, etc^
Such drawings usually lack the higher interests of the
figure, the flow of line, the rhythm of the accents of light
and dark, the unity of the long line of shade running
down the figure and revealing the "cubist" typical shape.
These things sought after, the student cannot go far
wrong, no matter how much he hankers after realism.
Unfortunately this wrongly realistic drawing has in
THE FIGURE—THE SEARCH FOR FORM. 6j
the past been rewarded, on the ground that the student
has been honest and sincere, qualities however which
students evince rather by what they omit than by what
they put in.
Another evil resulting from insistence on reality is
loss of rhythm. One often sees a figure with carefully
shaded details, all of about the same weight of tone, and
the dark masses monotonous in character. The drawing
looks fussy and over-elaborated, while reference to the
model gives an impression of simplicity and breadth.
The student has been too busy to catch the rhythm of
the modelling. The darks have been referred to as
accents, and certainly tone rhythm is akin to that of
music. The figure, perhaps, has dark hair, the contrast
between that and the white brow giving the strongest
accent. Lower, on the face and neck the accent of dark
is weakened, to be strengthened again, say, at the armpit,
while the shade areas on the torse and lower limbs again
diminish in strength—an ebb and flow, or rhythm
throughout the figure, giving at once variety and breadth.
This supplies a method of procedure. The main masses
of middle accent should be struck, the stronger and
weaker accents following in their places, and keeping
their relative pitch. Mention has been made of the
(division students arbitrarily make between drawing and
shading. They often show that they do not consider
shading as drawing. They work away laboriously at
some dark patch without ever exploring its borders, its
varying contour, or indeed without considering the struc-
tural use of their darks. Shading is only useful where it:
is expressing structure and revealing form. It should
68 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
be busy, that is giving due emphasis to the line of shade
which emphasizes the meeting of the planes.
Form is expressed by light against dark, and this
form should be drawn and then be backed up by shading.
Shading without drawing may be compared with bring-
ing bricks into a field without attempting to build with
them.
As pointed out elsewhere, any object is seen divided
into two areas, light and dark. In the former are planes
and forms sharply defined under usual conditions of
lighting. In the shade area which under normal lighting
is the further removed from the eye, the forms are quiet
and subdued. Hence an equal distribution of focusing
is destructive of unity. There is no need to pore into
the crannies of the dark area, for Nature forbids it, while
the light area affords abundance of opportunity for
searching study. Often, however, the would-be finished
drawing shows that the eye has not fully explored forms
;
the test may be applied to the meeting of angles, such as
the line of armpit, where it meets its shade edge. Thelines may have been brought together in some fashion,
but what happens at the junction? What is the actual
shape of the dark patch? The student must ask him-
self these questions as he approaches such passages, for
unless he exercises a vigilant scrutiny his drawing will
be full of insufficiently observed shapes. Lastly, light
and shade is not merely utilitarian, does not serve only to
reveal the forms, but has a beauty of its own well worth
the closest attention. If we look say at an interior by
Velasquez, we are conscious of a subtle yet clearly
marked series of beautiful passages of light and shade,
i
Fig. 20—An unfinished drawing showing the use oi eharcoal in expressing
varying textures.
;?m;^.--r':-^:--^^^ ";'
Fig. 2 1— Dr.ivN ing with charco;il on Michallet paper.
70
THE FIGURE—THE SEARCH FOR FORM. 71
of rich velvety darks against liquid lights, or of light
edges melting mysteriously into background tones. Heshowed us how to look at the beauty of tone in nature,
and the seeing eye discerns it everywhere. What can
be finer, for example, to be seen in any wood or clump
of trees, than a trunk in full light with a dark spray cut-
ting across it, or some such passage in constantly varying
sequence as the eye examines the scene. Equally beau-
tiful are the tone passages in the nude figure posed
before a quiet background. The semi-translucency of
the flesh seems to enhance these contrasts, and presents
some of the most subtle and varied effects that light
reveals. An arm in strong tone against a gleaming
chest, or the darks of a hand or knee against a thigh
fully illuminated are things to wonder at, and not merely
because they are striking examples of the relief of one
form against another, of what one may call the stereo-
scopic appearance, but because they are beautiful
passages of light and shade. To judge from students'
drawings they sternly ignore beauty of tone. They say
in effect that they are not to be turned^aside from their
purpose, which is to draw a human being, to fix the pose
and the proportions, to indicate the structure, and to
express the details. If they really were selecting from
the model, the teacher would be delighted, even though
they omitted what he considered an essential part of their
training, the study of tone. But he finds tha;t these
effects of light and shade are ignored because the
students fail to see them, or to be attracted by their
beauty. Shading, to them, consists in industriously
striping or stippling their study with tone, monotonous
72 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
yet full of the wrong variety—too many lights in the
(dark areas, and too many darks in the light—^while their
shading has often no drawing in it; they fail to follow
the boundary of the shade patch, nor do they give the
variety of its edge, for they do not perceive the
"invisible" spots, the places where the outline melts
away, nor, on the other hand, the trenchant, brilliant edge
where a dark comes sharply against the light, or where
the contour of the figure in light contrasts with the darker
background.
On the other hand there are passages of the utmost
subtlety generally in the lighter areas where a well-lit
form comes against another similarly illuminated. Acommon example is that of the thighs and knees of a
seated figure. The near thigh and top of the knee seen
against the further thigh presents a border hardly visible
except to a keen eye, so little difference is there in the
tones of the two thighs, yet the edge of the near thigh is
there, and though faint, must be expressed by a clear
line, or in some cases by the sharp edge of a delicate
tone suggesting the upper plane of the thigh.
Students often represent this delicate edge as a
thick black line like a cart track, partly because they do
not perceive the refinement of the passage, but also
perhaps because they do not realize the different inten-
sities their drawing implement is capable of. Theyshould understand that a 6 B pencil, if used delicately
on the right paper, will draw a line as lightly as a 6 H.
CHAPTER X.
THE FIGURE—TIME SKETCHING.
The time sketch, as it has come to be called, is with-
out doubt the really vital and testing exercise of the
whole course of drawing study.
The search for form, by means of the antique and
life, the study of tone, vigorous and prolonged as they
may be, are deliberate and experimental. They corre-
spond somewhat with the slow accumulation of know-
ledge in a science laboratory, but in the exercise under
discussion the student has to set down his impressions
directly, in a limited time, and therefore practically
without erasure. In the result his artistic personality
exhibits itself on the paper plain to any judge. Thepoint to which he has trained his observation, his know-
ledge of structure, and of the principles governing
plastic representation, are embodied in the drawing, and
his weakness, his failure to profit by teaching are there
also. It is a simple test—to make a drawing, but it
stands in judgment on the student's previous study. His
careful drawings, which have taken days and weeks to
produce, are now seen to be not so much drawings as
searchings for form more or less tentative, though with-
73
74 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
out their discipline he would come ill-prepared to the
more direct exercise.
As suggested above, the figure should be drawn about
sight-size, and the whole figure always, not merely those
portions which seem the most interesting, or which
chance to occupy the paper. It is true that Alfred
Stevens, Leighton and others often drew fragments, but
they were not studying, but accumulating facts they
wanted for a particular job. Reference may be madehere to Mr. C. H. Holme's comments on this point in his
"Science of Picture Making," where he deprecates
students having to work all parts of a drawing to the
same dead level of finish. That is also condemnedemphatically in these pages, but it is true also that a
course of art study, like any other, is bound to include
much serious continuous study. It cannot all be at
fever heat.
Art and art study is perhaps best looked upon as a
game, a long, vigorous pastime, affording a few momentsof ecstatic pleasure, with interludes of close application
—but nevertheless a sport—and many sportsmen will
accept the above as a pretty close description of their
own favourite pursuit. And as such it is necessary to
play the game properly, to have the sporting tempera-
ment—to hold on, to observe the rules, and to keep one's,
temper under all circumstances.
Therefore, given the essential condition of the exer-
cise, that the figure is to be doing something, standing
firmly erect, sitting passively, or lying prone, it will be
seen that there is no hardship in indicating the whole of
the figure. The sense of proportion is the more fully^
THE FIGURE—TIME SKETCHING. 75
exercised, and also it is extremely important that the
student should see that the pose nearly always demandsthe representation of the whole figure. This is shown
clearly in the erect pose. It is necessary that the lines
should be brought down to the feet—that these shall be
clearly indicated, so that the figure stands firmly and with
weight. How often does one see in the drawings of
students, standing figures which sway, which could be
blown over with a breath, or seem almost to float ?
In many cases the composition of line is shattered by
the omission of the extremities. Further, by drawing
the whole figure, the student is obliged to -place it, to see
that it goes on the paper nicely. The effect of piece-
meal drawing often shows itself very plainly. A glaring
instance is the absence of an extremity for which there is
no room. Another is the biassing of the student's sense
of proportion by the proportions of the paper—the inan-
imate sheet which is often allowed to dictate and
dominate the proportions of the drawing. If the figure
occupies the long way of the paper it is often drawn too
long; if it occupies the short way of the paper it is
disproportioned in the opposite direction. The fewer
rules the better, but one at least is necessary, that in com-
mencing a drawing of the figure the extreme limits shall
first be settled. The first lines not only suggest the
movement, they also fix the limits and the placing.
Then come the main facts, the essential structure, ex-
pressed by lines of direction. No attempt at detail or
the refinement of outline should be made at this stage.
Next comes the establishing of the chief planes, the
division of the figure into dark and light, or rather the
76 DRAV/ING FOR ART STUDENTS.
determining of the edge dividing these planes. This
edge again should be simplified, for it is quite as com-
plex as the actual contour, being indeed a contour from
another point of view—that of the light. The stage is
difficult for the novice, obsessed as he is by his own divi-
sion of the study into drawing and shading. It would
be well if the term "shading" were dropped altogether,
Fig. 22.
as its use by the teacher is apt to cause confusion, the
student understanding it to mean shading of details.
Expression by tone, however, follows a parallel course
with line expression. As the contour must first be
grasped as a "direction," which later will be resolved
into the subtle line created by the overlapping of muscu-
lar and bony contours, so shading or expression by tone
must first be seen as a mass or plane without variation,
this and the subtleties of edge being left to a later stage.
Fig. 22 shows the form divided into two planes under the
THE FIGURE—TIME SKETCHING. 77
influence of sunlight, which maps out the figure in this
trenchant way. Study of the nude in sunlight is valuable
because of this clear division of planes. Also the half-
tones and darks lose the dull, sooty quality they are apt
to take on in the studio. All is definite and lucid with-
out blackness.
Students often spend much time on minutiae of
shading while oblivious to the general plane of tone, just
as great variety of curve and hollow in the contours of a
drawing of the figure may be accompanied by neglect of
directions and proportion.
The figure now being set out in its essentials of direc-
tion and plane, the drawing should be held alongside the
model for self-criticism. This is the stage for second
thoughts, for alterations, the next stage will be too late.
The student should now retrace his steps and set out
on these simple indications, the structural lines giving
the general build of the figure. Next comes general
work in expressing form. The line is drawn and then
backed up by the adjoining tone.
Lastly comes the edge study referred to in detail
later. The subtleties of the contour and shade edges
are worked at, and the influence of the background on
the contour of the figure.
In each of these stages the figure has been worked
over from head to foot, and the resulting finish is not that
of piecemeal tinkering, but of right method and artistic
treatment by logical steps. Further, the method ensures
that the interest is sustained during the exercise. Too.
often the student, after completing the head or other
78 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
interesting passages, turns to the remainder with some-
thing akin to disgust or weariness.
Of course it is not to be supposed that the method
suggested above should be adopted continuously. Thetime allotted to a pose may vary. Quite short poses of
ten or even five minutes force the students to attempt the
figure as a whole, otherwise when time is called they find
themselves left with a fragment. In these brief attempts
the stages suggested above have to be compressed, but
even if omitted they must be kept in mind. As a rule
a beginner requires from 20 to 30 minutes to set downhis impressions in order. The following arrangement
for a two hours' session has at any rate met with the
approval of students after several years' experiment.
First a sitting of forty-five minutes, followed by ten or
fifteen minutes' rest. Next a pose of twenty minutes
or the same time given to a memory exercise. Theremainder of the sitting is occupied with ten or five
minute poses, these being taken last because they
engender a certain excitement which makes a longer pose
seem dull and slow.
Referring again to the question of movement, men-
tion may be made of the theory of Dynamic Symmetry
as set forth by Mr. Jay Hambidge. It is not proposed
to enter on a discussion of the theory here; it will pro-
bably provoke much discussion and controversy, but tw©
points of interest in drawing from the life arise out of it.
First it would appear that a maximum amount of move-
ment obtains when the figure is contained within a
square. If the rectangle enclosing the figure is narrower
than a square, the action subsides, the figure shuts up as
THE FIGURE—TIME SKETCHING. 79
it were. If the rectangle on the other hand is wider than
a square, the action begins to partake of a creeping char-
acter which is emphasized as the rectangle is widened.
Secondly, the division of the enclosing rectangle
whatever it may be, by diagonals and other oblique lines
to important points give the maximum of movementwithin that rectangle. If the directions pass to less
important points the action flags and weakens.
CHAPTER XI.
RELATED FIGURES.
When the pupil has learned to draw a figure with
some sense of proportion of line and appropriate ex-
pression of detail, it is time to devise other exercises.
Too often students plod at the single figure year in and
out. For their compositions they take a figure from
their sketch book, add others, and then wonder why they
do not come together happily. They will not because
they have been seen isolated, and remain so even if a
number are crowded together. When we watch people
in real life or in the cinema, constantly their gestures
and movements form a link between them. In dancing,
which is the art of movement, the line is consciously
rhythmical, but in ordinary intercourse, and all the more
so because movements and gestures are unstudied, the
line expresses also emotion in varying degrees. Twopeople meet, and their heads incline in conversation, the
more earnest speaker laying a hand on the other's
shoulder. These movements establish a sympathetic
line or bond of union which creates a unified and con-
trolling form. The speakers are not now two but one,
and the lines pass from one to another. In a more
80
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4)i4%N
\
1\
•tei .~-»S3k2.;-,(^Q
V,
X .^r
*^-««sr^7^,-j»—
I',
:'-"7
-fe'tJ
F"ic.. 23.
V.) #
Fig. 24—A chalk drawing li\ Wattcau. 'flic lines of the arms flow
together, conlinucel hv the lines of the drapery on the lady's shoulders.
One alniojt expects the lady to rise.
82
RELATED FIGURES. 83
obvious case, one figure bowed in grief, and the other
bending sympathetically towards her, the lines flow
together so obviously that the idea of consolation in
sorrow is complete without the necessity for appropriate
facial expression. The lines of the figures express the
emotion.
In such exercises these controlling lines must be
sought for at an early stage. It is worse than useless to
'draw first one figure and then the other, for the eye is
then seeing the figures detached. The combination
must be looked for. (fig. 23—25).
In such associations as two figures pulling or holding
hands, the lines formed by the united arms and hands
must be drawn, and the two hands as one.
Two figures seated or standing with arms entwined
furnish a good instance of the controlling line.
The sympathetic relations of the feet should be
noted, and the variations in their position. Attention
should be given to the hands which in the figure in grief
form a cup in which the face is held, or where clasped
round the knees follow the shape of the latter, (fig.
23). Or again they form a bowl when they are used to
'drink from.
These exercises may be followed by combinations of
three or more figures. There is no need to wait for pro-
fessional models, for pupils in turn will be ready, for a
few minutes, to act their parts.
Such work will enable the student to face the uncon-
scious emotional gestures and combinations of real life,
whether sympathetic or antagonistic.
A friend once told the writer that when making
84 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
Studies for' a series of compositions of wrestling, so
violent were the movements that he had only time to
select a contour, say pyramidal in shape, indicating the
figures locked together, with perhaps a suggestion of the
space between the legs. Afterwards, with the aid of
models posed to fit into the sketch, the structure and
detail of the wrestlers could be examined.
CHAPTER XII.
EDGE STUDY.
If a white ball be placed before a grey background,
the contour of the light side will tell against that grey.
The contour of the dark side will tell also, the back-
ground being a tone midway between light and dark.
Then, at two points, where the light contour melts
into the dark one, the outline disappears, ceases to exist
to normal sight, (fig. 14). Drawings or paintings of
objects can only be made to relieve, to take on roundness
or solidity of appearance by following natural lighting,
by noticing where the outline is lost. This is difficult to
see and to represent, so accustomed are students to
searching not for form, but for contours.
It need hardly be discussed at this stage whether the
achievement of such relief to the point of losing the
sense of the flatness of the plane on which the object is
'depicted, is necessary or artistic. The really vulgar
portraits in the galleries are those which the admiring
public declares to be almost "coming out" of their
frames. But the art student has to learn the use of all
weapons. For the poster he uses the broad outline
which reveals everything, but flattens it also. In these
86 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
pages the student is not considered as composing, but as
striving to acquire a mastery over structure and move-
ment by means of the appearance, and to do this he must
know how far he can go in the way of realistic treatment.
Experiment will prove to the student that whenever
the whole contour is clearly defined, a flatness results.
If the figure is viewed with the light behind it, it shows
dark and flat; if the light is behind the spectator the
figure is seen all in light without shadow, and again a flat-
ness results. All realistic painters have used strong
light and shade , from Caravaggio onwards, and all such
have made use of this melting of the contour at the half-
way points. In other words a continuous outline implies
an incompletely expressed figure.
This paradox supplies the clue to the study of form
by light and shade, in its simplest terms.
The object, whether cast or living figure, should be
placed before a background midway in tone between the
light and dark, that is, equal in tone to the half tone of
the object.
Now in nature there are no outlines—only edges.
Yet one must use outlines; one cannot be always
smudging in backgrounds in order to reveal the form.
The outline is not a part of the object, nor of the back-
ground, but an imaginary line sensed by the eye, and re-
presenting the degree of contrast in tone between the
object and its background. This contrast can be repre-
sented by a line varying in intensity or even width. Theline takes the place of a more or less mechanical back-
ground tone, and gives opportunity for close edge study
EDGE STUDY. 87
which is practically absent where backgrounds are
insisted upon.
From the character of the outline it should be
possible to determine the tone of the background. Onecan see on looking at fig. 18 that the model was posed
before a low toned background, although this back-
ground has been omitted intentionally. This is ex-
pressed by the strength of the line where the light falls
on the contour, and by the softness of that part of the
contour in shade, which approached the background so
nearly in tone that a clearly drawn outline would have
falsified the relations.
To put backgrounds behind studies of the antique or
living model is to waste time better spent on edge study,
and confuses drawing with painting, which consists
essentially in spreading tone.
Drawings by students who overlook this principle of
expressive contour, have a vague indeterminate effect.
The contour of the light side is often drawn timidly andfaintly with the mistaken notion that any line on that side
is too dark. Or worse still, a hard line is drawn all
round the contour. In this case students are trying to
draw the figure by itself as if it could exist without an
environment, which is unthinkable. Expressive draw-
ing implies not only the figure but its background. All
other drawing is mere diagram making, very necessary at
times, but alien to the aim in this connexion, of realising
the figure as completely as direct and student-like
methods will allow.
The old way of simplifying the student's task was to
place a white screen behind the object. This was
88 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
supposed to represent the whiteness of the paper drawn
upon, thus freeing the student from any trouble in regard
to the background.
But a moment's consideration will show that this
ruined the exercise. First, the glare of the background
unduly forced forward the contour in shade, which was
furthest from the spectator (because generally the light is
behind him, though to the left or right). Also the black-
ening of the edge by contrast destroyed the effect of
reflected light, which students had been taught to allow
for, and still did, though they saw it not.
Lastly, and most important, the emphasis of the pose
is determined by the way the light falls on the figure, and
this emphasis was destroyed by the white background,
the contour on the light side being rendered ineffective,
thus spoiling the pose, and making unity of treatment
impossible.
Another feature of edge study which should be men-
tioned is the nature of the edge, both of the light and
'dark areas. How shall it be drawn or painted so as to
express the volume of the form ? The beginner looks at
the edge of an object, and puts down a line accordingly.
But solidity or mass is not to be compassed in that way,
for if one looks at any round object, as a flower pot, the
eye is naturally attracted to the line of shade dividing the
light area from the dark that is, the eye forgets to look at
the contours. Hence in representing solidity, the
student should follow the action of the unbiassed eye,
and should not, when drawing the contours of the object,
EDGE STUDY. 89
look directly at them, but at the line of shade, when these
contours will at once fall out of focus and blur somewhat,
Here one comes upon a very important and interest-
ing controversy already mentioned, which has agitated
art schools of all periods. Not seldom the student is
implored to be honest; to draw what he sees, to follow
nature faithfully. But before a student has worked at
a drawing five minutes he finds it quite impossible to
follow this advice, for the conventions of his materials,
and especially the limitations of pictorial representation,
restrict his efforts, and he will be wise to try to under-
stand these limitations. Honesty one can rule out of the
argument ; it is for greengrocers, not for artists, at least
in this connexion.
The immediate problem before the student is
whether he shall emphasize the edges of his object, with
the result that he loses the effect of roundness, the object
appearing as if cut out of card, or whether he shall con-
centrate on the volume of the object by blurring his
edges. The primitive Italians and Netherlandish
painters adopted the earlier method, and we see their
work to be essentially flat in spite of much pains taken
to model the form. Leonardo da Vinci, and those whofollowed him, have chosen to accentuate the roundness
by blurring the contours. If the Venus of Velasquez in
the National Gallery be examined, it will be seen that the
contour of the cheek and shoulder has been brushed to
and fro so that the edge is almost lost. Sir JoshuaReynolds often made edges wonderfully enveloped.
Early portraits (three-quarter view), however, showthe hard edge of the further cheek; consequently the
90 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
nose, weakened by contrast, appears pressed against the
face. If the contour of the cheek be covered by the
hand, the nose at once relieves or comes forward.
Holbein's lines are hard because he was drawing
with the definite purpose of providing himself with exact
contours from which to paint. His drawn portraits were
to be translated into painted ones, and he wanted exact
form. The Windsor Holbeins show the contours marked
by tracing on to the canvas.
The moral of all this seems to be that success in
modelling form does not depend on keen eyesight.
Extreme keenness of sight is often a disadvantage to
young students, and not always taken into consideration
by teachers, whose sight is losing its first sharpness. Wesee the result of powerful sight in Holman Hunt's
pictures. Doubtless he saw like that, for he could dis-
tinguish the moons of Jupiter with the naked eye.
Fig. 1 8 shows that the contour of a figure need not
consist in an unvarying line such as is produced by a
piece of wire. It should be noted that the expressive-
ness of the line is conditioned by the way the light falls
on the contours. Students wishing to give variety and
interest to their outline often accentuate it in an arbitrary
way, especially where bony forms crop up, without refer-
ence to the lighting. But natural lighting will give this
emphasis more truly than any invented and artificial
method.
Judged by this standard many careful and well con-
structed drawings are yet mere diagrams, because the
variety of the edge is disregarded. This is seen, too, in
cases as mentioned above where the contours of two
91
Fig. 2 5a—A drawing made with charcoal on Michallct.
An example ot variet\' of edge treatment.
9^
EDGE STUDY. 93.
forms both in light, overlap, the nearer contour being
delicate and perhaps scarcely visible. These delicate,,
sharp-edged contours demand the most refined handling..
Appreciation of variety of edge may be stimulated by"
consideration of the dogma that "the opposite contours,
of an object vary in emphasis." The fault generally-
consists in drawing the contours say of a limb with lines,
of the same strength. Observation will show that they-
vary. Further, if two contours come together so that a Yshape occurs, the three arms of the Y are never of equal-
strength ; the line of emphasis will ignore one arm, other-
wise the eye would be pinned down to the meeting point
of the three lines. These irregular Y's, of course, occur
at many points in any pose, as armpit, neck and shoulder,,
ankle, and various creasings and overlappings.
CHAPTER XIII.
ARTISTIC ANATOMY.
Artistic Anatomy, so-called, like perspective, when
ill-digested, often leads a student astray. Many draw-
ings from the figure are mere anatomical diagrams, look-
ing as if the model had been flayed. Fresh from their
books of diagrams students search the figure for anatom-
ical details. They even ask the model to tighten the
knee or the armpit, so that they may mark more definitely
the forms of those regions. This does not mean that
anatomy should not be studied, but that it should be used
as a key to the construction of the figure, rather than dis-
played for its own sake.. Moody, in his "Lectures and
Lessons on Art," a book now out of print, but one well
worth the careful study of the art student, says :
—
"Intellectual work is the hardest work of all. . . .
Just consider, for instance, the result of avoiding the
effort necessary to master the position and details of
the ankle. The want of that knowledge will probably
plague you at least twice a week : it will delay your
work, you will get into trouble every time you draw the
figure, making altogether a sum total of annoyance,
^unsatisfactory work and feelings a hundred times
94
ARTISTIC ANATOMY. 9S
greater than the expenditure of time and thought which
would have been necessary to surmount the difficulty
at first."
First in importance is a clear knowledge of the bony
framework and its articulations. It settles the move-
ment and the proportions, and at the joints where the
bone crops up and shows almost its actual build, it
indicates the important accents of form by a squareness
and clear cut shape, which must be appreciated if the
drawing is to avoid wooliness. On the other hand the
muscular masses fill up the gaps and suggest the first
great lines of the pose.
All the parts of the skeleton which determine the
surface forms should be carefully studied, and especially
the shoulders and hips. The former may be described as
a floating girdle, for they are attached only by the collar
bones (to.the notches in the breastbone), the remainder
being free except for muscular and tendinous attach-
ments. Hence the comparative freedom of action, while
the complexity of structure, the combination of clavicle,
humerus and scapula, add to the difficulty of expressing
the forms. The hips, on the other hand, form a fixed
girdle, firmly attached to the backbone. The two halves of
the shoulder girdle can move independently, but the hip
girdle moves only as a whole, like a basket tilted. Whenin a standing pose the hips are aslant, this means that the
model is resting the weight on the leg to the side wherethe hip basket is higher, and therefore a vertical line
'drawn, say, through the pit of the neck, will pass through
the ankle of that leg, which slants inwards in order to
.support the weight. The other leg, v/hich carries little
96 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
or no weight, droops
with the lower side of
the hips, hence the
knee of that leg is
lower than that of the
supporting leg. Andby way of compensa-
tion the head and
shoulders often slant
in the opposite direc-
tion, forming a series of
radiating lines which cross
the long lines of the pose at
right angles, and steady it.
(fig. 26).
The main articulations
may be reduced to their
simplest terms by a diagram
such as is shown in fig. i6a,
similar to fig. 26. Some-
thing like this construction
must form the commence-
ment of every drawing of
the figure which has any
claim to movement and
structure. All the articula-
tions including the should-
ers are represented by cross
lines. It is for want of the
study of these crossings or
articulations that the draw- FlG. 26.
ARTISTIC ANATOMY. 97
ings of beginners look boneless and yet wooden, for they
appear to have no ankles, and wrists, to say nothing of
hips. It should be noted especially, and the skeleton
largely supplies the reason, that these crossings of the
extremities are ob-
lique. This is seen
clearly in the elbow
and ankle. In the
latter the obliquity
is caused by the fact
that the inner ankle
is higher than the
outer, a matter of the
bony construction.
In the elbow the
slant comes from the
origin of the supi-
nators being higher
than those of the
flexors.
Fig. 26 shows
these slanting cross-
ings at an early stage
in the drawing. Thepoint to be borne in
mind is that anatom-
ical construction cor-FiG. 27.
roborates right procedure in drawing the figure.
In poses with some degree of torsion as in fig. 27,
these cross lines, all marking the bony or muscular struc-
ture, radiate from a point at no great distance from the
98 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
figure. The greater the movement the closer in is the
point of radiation. The matter has an interest for
students as showing a structural basis for the composition
of line which sometimes mystifies them. They are apt
to think that these rhythmical lines, whether in the
direction of or across the figure, are imagined by the
teacher, and a real service is rendered by showing them
cause and effect.
The old fashion of learning the muscles singly and
detached is answerable for much of the wrongly applied
anatomical drawing mentioned above. Usually they are
seen in groups, and should be studied as such.
Too often the only glimpse students have of the nudefigure in action is when the model walks to and from the
throne. A regular exercise should consist in the model
moving freely at will, the students marking the changes-
of form which take place.
This is not a book on artistic anatomy, for which
students should study the regular manuals.
An anatomical detail often misinterpreted is the
function of the neck muscle (sternocleido mastoid) in
turning the head. When the neck muscle on the right
contracts, the skull rotates, the mastoid process of the
skull being brought forward, and it follows that the head
is turned to the left. It is often supposed that the
contraction of a sterno-cleido turns the head to that side,
but observation of what takes place will correct the error.
^«ir"»««J**«<?=«MMi(f>?«»i'^'
Fig. 28—A drawing with black and white chalk on gre)' Michallet paper.
The reticent use of the white chalk should be noted.
99
Fjg. 20—A drawing on blue paper with hlaclv and wliitc chalk by ]. M.Swan. The simplicity of the work should be noted and the way the
white chalk is used to divide the figure into a few planes. Large areas are
untouched. [British Museum.
CHAPTER XIV.
DRAWINGS ON TONED PAPER.
Toned paper with black and white chalk is often
used by painters, when making studies, for carefully-
chosen, it provides a ready-made middle or half tone,
and hence saves time and labour. Especially is it suit-
able for drapery studies, and Lord Leighton's drawings
in this medium are well known.
Students of painting should use this method some-
times when drawing, for it fosters modelling "in the
light." With pencil or black chalk on white, as the tone
of the object approaches the tone of the paper, so workhas perforce to cease. That is to say, on white paper
most of the modelling is done on the dark side, and the
tendency is to leave the lighter tones more or less empty.
Work on toned paper is concerned as much with the light
passages as with the dark, and hence follows moreclosely the method of painting.
One common error may be noted here. It is that of
first making a completed drawing in black on. the toned
paper, (and owing to its completeness the eye has sub-
consciously disregarded the tone of the paper and
assumed it to be white), afterwards using the white chalk
freely for the lights, with the result that all the tones are
falsified.
When drawing on toned paper the figure should be
lOI G2.
102 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
examined in order to determine which areas may be
assumed to be equivalent in tone to that of the paper.
The black chalk may be used first to place the figure, to
indicate the chief darks, and to suggest the main struc-
ture, then the white chalk should be substituted in order
to place the lights. Generally the white chalk should
not touch the black (except for cases of special
emphasis), a space of plain paper being left between the
two, representing the tone chosen as standing for the tone
of paper.
Often when working on toned paper the student
darkens unduly the parts approaching half tone, only
finding at the close of the exercise that the tone of the
paper would have sufficed. The untouched -paper is the
best part of the drawing if it is in the right place and
corresponds with the tones of the model, (fig. 29).
In drawing from draped figures evidence should be
sought of the form beneath. Beginners draw the
drapery only, as if on a clothes horse. They sometimes
stop short at a sleeve, having omitted the continuity of
arm and hand. Even in a fully clothed figure much of
the form is suggested by the planes and by the pull of
the drapery from the points of support, this often result-
ing in a beautiful series of radiating curves. It should
be remembered that the deep parts of the folds repre-
sent the figure, for there the stuff rests upon it, and these
shapes should be carefully searched out. (fig. 28). Agood deal of interesting matter concerning drapery will
be found in Leonardo da Vinci's "Notes," and in
Moody's "Lectures on Art," while the subject is dealt
with in Lanteri's "Modelling," Vol. II.
CHAPTER XV.
EARLY AND MODERN REPRESENTATIONOF FORM.
If an early painting be examined, even one so late as
Botticelli's Venus, certain mannerisms are noticed which
are of great interest to the student of form.
The painter has evidently not worked directly from
the model. The treatment is "sympathetic" rather
than the result of observation. He has perhaps drawn
on his reminiscences of classic sculpture, or even from
contemporary engravings of the nude.
Judged by modern standards, there is a lack of con-
struction in the figure generally, and especially is this
seen in the feet, which, like those in contemporary work,
never seem to stand firmly on the ground, perhaps
because extreme foreshortening forbids the clear repre-
sentation of all the toes, which were invariably shown.
All this in no way detracts from Botticelli's beauty of
line and suavity of form. He might be said to claim
kinship with the Chinese and Japanese masters, so easy
and fluent are his contours.
Italian Art of the Trecento and Quattrocento periods
exhibit generally lightly shaded forms. The expression
is empirical rather than that of personal observation, a
convention derived from wall painting.
103
104 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
Leonardo da Vinci changed all that and formulated
the rules governing the expression of form by light and
shade. In his work are seen the "lines of shade" and
their soft or smoky (sfumato) appearance. He was the
first notable academic, and on his work the teaching of
light and shade, as now taught in schools of art, was
founded.
Since Leonardo the study of drawing has depended
upon "appearance." The photograph, essentially
light and shade as it is, and simulating the endless
gradations of natural lighting, has tightened the chain of
tradition. Consequently students are told to be truth-
ful, honest, to draw what they see, to copy nature
—
impossible task and misleading advice. Moral issues
are needlessly dragged in. The main thing is for
students to be artists. But if the test of appearance be
conceded, if the object with its environment is to be
represented, what are the limits of the convention which'
is called drawing?
First it is clear that it is quite impossible to show on
a plane surface all the gradations of light occurring on a
curved surface. In attempting to do so the student
merely deceives himself, loses his way, and consequently
all profit from his study of drawing in line and tone.
The great realistic painters, such as the Dutch and
the Spaniards, chose a few tones. They painted in the
general tone, and into this they brushed the dark and the
light tones. On the latter they placed the high light,
and in the dark the reflected light. Their practice shows
that these few tones are the essential ones.
Drawings made with the stump are specially open to
EARLY AND MODERN REPRESENTATION OF FORM. loj
the objection that by continuous working, students
delude themselves with the idea that they are making a
complete expression of the tones of the subject, whereas
the fictitious relief, apparently destroying the plane
surface of the paper, is a vulgar and meretricious
quality, crushing the student's powers of artistic appre-
ciation.
Students should understand that all drawing is a
convention, and that it is impossible fully to realise any
object, except by means of a trick, (the history of Art is
full of instances, from the grapes of Appelles onwards),
and should be urged not to cofy the object, but to
express those essentials of form which they can discern.
In a sense the more they try to make their drawings like,
the more they cloud and confuse their artistic intelli-
gence. Every drawing done should be an artistic effort,
and made with artistic intention, for drawing cannot be
divorced from art.
This disposes at once of the old-fashioned practice
of outline drawing. Outline or contour drawing, such
as the outlines of ornament (with sections) drawn by art
architect for a carver to follow, is a convention used pro-
fessionally, but as study, pursued for long periods, it is
destructive of interest in the appearance of things.
Nothing written above is intended to relieve the
student from the responsibility of taking his drawing as
far as possible. We have only to look at the great
masters, at the early work, say, of Velasquez,
Rembrandt, Franz Hals, and at the drawings of
Holbein, to see what an amount of eyesight they put:
into their work, what an incredible amount of pains they
io6 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
took with mere details of dress, etc. Velasquez spent
himself in studying the effect of light on homely pots
and pans, to a degree which hardly any modern student
has felt necessary. A friend of the writer once reported
a conversation with a great living sculptor and decorator
who, speaking of the modern pseudo-decorative effect
obtained by the slurring of detail, declared that he would
exhibit the very pores of the skin on his figures if it
could be done. He meant that the most realistic modeof expression is possible in the hands of a true artist,
and not only not incompatible with but enhancing the
'decorative effect he may wish to secure.
CHAPTER XVI.
DRAWING FROM MEMORY.
Many professional artists from necessity have had
to train themselves in drawing from memory long after
their student days were over. The translation of the
writings of Lecocq de Boisbaudran has had some share
in the interest now taken by schools of art in the subject.
Lecocq especially emphasized the necessity for the
visual retention of a definite form, and drawing being
taught in those days from flat copies, he naturally used
them, thus obtaining the clear precise statement of fact
which he desired. His first exercise was the outline of a
nose, and from this his teaching extended over the whole
field of representative and imaginative art.
Memory drawing as practised at present often takes
lines quite other than those of Lecocq, sometimes
missing his basis of definite form. Pupils are some-
times shown an object of intricate construction for a few
moments, and are then expected to reproduce it from
memory. They may have looked at it superficially, but
they have not really examined it and made themselves
thoroughly acquainted with its proportions and
structure. Consequently after their memory vision has
107
io8 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
become dim, they elaborate their so-called drawing from
memory, with imaginary details. They must know the
object intimately before they can draw it from memory;its construction, and especially its proportions, should
be ascertained; it should be scrutinized from various
points of view, and, if need be, handled.
A class of students drawing from memory gives the
art teacher some puzzling moments. The slackest art
student is often found to be far ahead of his fellows in
the power of visualizing, and reproduces seemingly with-
out effort, while students with more developed sense of
form may find the memory exercise very difficult.
Galton, in his "Inquiries into Human Faculty," tells
how in a "series of queries related to the illumination,
definition and colouring of the mental image" addressed
to "lOo men, at least half of whom were distinguished in
science or in other fields of intellectual work," he asked
them to visualize "the breakfast table." The answers
showed that while some saw the scene perfectly clearly,
in full light and colour, with the objects so sharply
defined that they could, as they said, have drawn them
had they the power, others experienced gaps in their
memory, a dimness of illumination, an indistinctness of
form, while a number would not admit that they had any
power at all of vizualizing.
Whether the power of drawing from memory be a
"gift" or not, there is no doubt that the best results are
obtained when memory work is regarded not as merely
part of the study of drawing, but as a system in itself,
such as, for instance, that practised by the Japanese.
(figs. 30, 30A).
DRAWING FROM MEMORY. 109
The late Joseph Crawhall was an example of a train-
ing in art exclusively through memory work. His early
studies were directed by his father, who taught him to
observe, and then make records from memory. India-
rubber was not allowed, and attempts, one after another,
were thrown aside until the desired impression was
secured. All through life this habit of seeking after a
completely artistic expression of his visual memory, per-
sisted, and his friends have told their sorrow at seeing
him destroy beautiful drawings, which, however, lacked
some quality he sought. His desire to express himself
was spontaneous, and overwhelming when it manifested
itself, and often at the most inconvenient times. Another
interesting feature was the sudden emergence of impres-
sions which had lain dormant for a long period. One of
his latest drawings, the subject of which was an episode
from the Spanish bull-ring, was made fifteen years after
he had actually witnessed such a scene, (fig. 31).
His choice of subjects, animals and birds, and of his
medium of expression, watercolour on linen, show him
to have been much influenced by the Japanese. It is
significant that at his death his studio was empty save
for two partly finished drawings. There were no
records of study, no bundles of notes, and no stacks of
'drawings, for as mentioned above, he destroyed all
imperfect work. His drawings are hard to see, no public
galleries having acquired any, but a good many repro-
ductions of his work can be seen scattered among the
volumes of the "Studio."
But while Crawhall may have been a case of a special
gift, it is evident that all art students can profit by a
no DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
training in memory, and gain from it certain important
benefits.
Whistler is an instance of an artist who trained him-
self to draw from memory, and Menpes' account of the
way he studied his nocturnes on the spot with a friend,
turned his back on the scene, and described the effect;
kept it before his consciousness during the evening,
and painted the picture the following morning, makesvery interesting reading. We may almost consider hima pupil of Lecocq, some of whose students he knew.
Millet is another example of a painter, who lounged
about Barbizon, apparently the laziest man there, but all
the time absorbing the form and spirit of the peasant life
around him. Afterwards in his studies he "squeezed
the sponge" and produced those paintings, of which the
simplicity of the composition, the largeness of the forms
and the unity of the whole, make it certain that they were
not produced out of doors under an umbrella, and amid
the distractions of details and variety, which invariably
occur when one is painting from nature.
When one looks at the drawings and paintings of the
Chinese and Japanese—all memory work—one is
amazed at the intimate character of the expression of
form. The familiarity with the structure extends to the
minutest detail. Early exercises in memory drawing
should take note of this quality and insist on the
exercises being of objects with which the students are
familiar, or which they can examine closely. The pro-
cedure of examination might follow some such steps as
these :—(i) general proportions; (2) type form, as cube
or cylinder, on which the object is based; (3) main line of
DRAWING FROM MEMORY. iii
enclosing shape; (4) construction in detail of the object.
Quite another type of exercise consists in asking the
students to visualize a familiar object, which, however,
is not produced at the time. An interesting exercise is
one which Mr. Catterson Smith has initiated, consisting
of drawing with the eyes closed. The exercise allows
the following of the mental image by the hand without
the embarrassment of seeing how far short the drawing
comes. Certainly this method gives good results in
composition, the movement being generally animated
and rhythmical.
In drawing the figure from memory, it will be well to
take into account its powers of movement. Most really
interesting pictorial material is evanescent, moving,
shifting. The clouds chase one another across the sky,
birds fly, animals walk, trot or gallop, water flows, breaks
into foam, or marshals in waves, people meet and
separate, all the time constantly moving. If drawing is
attempted in presence of this living cinematographic
picture, too often one finds one's sketchbook full of
shreds and patches. One is lucky to secure a line
suggesting the movement without the detail.
A training in memory drawing of the right sort is
wanted, and it should consist in approximating the con-
ditions to those of the world outside the studio.
The life model is posing, say for time sketching.
Every period of such work should include at least one
memory exercise, and it is well to consider what will be
most suitable. All art students will remember attack-
ing a pose which captivated them, but which the model
-was unable to keep. It is these poses full of action
112 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
which are required for the memory exercise. Themodel should be required to take up a vigorous attitude,
such as throwing, running or thrusting, where the limbs
and torse are extended to furnish a fine general line, apose which, as a rule, is the despair of the life room, but
in this case to be kept for a few seconds only. Thestudent meanwhile watches the figure, searching the
pose for the long line which shall establish the propor-
tions and movement of the drawing, (fig. 32).
The model then rests, while the students seek to
express their first generalization. The pose may need
to be resumed several times before a firm foundation for
the drawing is obtained. During repetitions of the
action the students examine the construction, and
especially the placing of the feet if the model is stand-
ing. Even the light and shade, so far as it explains the
structure, may be memorized. The exercise has the
further advantage of forcing the students to draw on
right constructive lines. This method also secures
good proportion, for working on the right principle,,
from big to little, the proportions are seized from the
commencement, and are often better from this point of
view than those of drawings made with the model sitting
continuously.
Another advantage is that the student sees what is
too rarely found in the life room, the model in strong"
action. When a model is put up for a long period, the
pose necessarily degenerates, because other muscles are
brought into play. An experienced sitter is often an
adept at making slight compensating alterations in the
pose. With a view to assisting the model, aids such as
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ings' of every natural or fashioned object existing in their country. It is
see what an asset this is to a system of memory drawing. The west
is without such a legacy.easy to
114
u
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Fk:. 3IA— Drawing with charcoal on Michallct paper. The scnsitivc-
ncbs of the contour should he noted.
DRAWING FROM MEMORY. 117
a wedge placed under the heel when off the ground, are
often used, or a hand in the act of pushing is supported,
both cases a complete contradiction of the original idea.
Students, seeing these devices used, become imbued
with the notion that the model posed is a fixed object,
and feel aggrieved if they detect the slightest devia-
tion.
CHAPTER XVII.
ANIMALS.
Animals, including birds and insects, are excellent
material for study, because, by reason of their rapid
movements, they quicken the eye. The student whocan follow the changes in position which even a captive
dove makes, will find the movements of the larger
quadrupeds and of human beings comparatively slow
and easy to record.
The bird's plumage is at once a complexity and a
simplification. The feathers, by reason of their con-
tinuous overlap, unify the contour, but, on the other
hand, tend to hide the bodily structure, which, however,
may be discerned by careful watching.
A common dove, which requires only a small box or
cage, a handful of dari, or other seed corn, daily, and
lives for years in captivity, apparently in perfect health,
is one of the easiest of creatures to keep. It has none
of the nervousness of most other domesticated birds,
and may be fondled and examined without fright or
suffering. In its plumage it is a model of the beauty of
order, and its movements being more sedate than those
of smaller birds, render it eminently suitable for study.
(fig. 33).
118
'yiMnA^-^
Fig. 32—A memory drawing of a figure in strong action. The upper
figure indicates the movement by establishing the long curve running downthe trunk and right leg.
119
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Fif:. 3 3—Sketches of a dove shewing the arrangement ot the plumage.
ANIMALS. IZI
It should first be impressed upon the student that
birds in their structure approximate to that of animals
—
are more like than unlike. The wing, for instance, is a
specialized arm, and if a dove is handled, the humerus,
radius, wrist and thumb can be detected. The butt of
the wing corresponds with the human wrist, but it is
capable of doubling or flexing more fully than the latter,
so that the bird when at rest can pack the wing into
a small compass, the humerus, forearm and hand taking
the form of a Z. The hand and fingers have coalesced,
providing attachments for the strong pinions or
primaries which beat the air; the secondaries, softer
and weaker in structure, grow from the fore-arm and the
122 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
so-called scapulars from the humerus. The bases of
the long feathers are covered, by smaller plumes or
coverts, the whole being bound strongly together by
ligaments, so that the removal of the flight feathers from
the wing of a large bird demands great force.
Especially should it be noted when handling a bird,
that the feathers are not distributed all over the body
but occur in tracts, leaving naked areas. If the dove be
turned over carefully and its breast feathers blown
aside, the large area of the breast, void of feathers, will
be seen. Again all the feathers of the upper surface,
with the exception of the smaller wing coverts, overlap
like the tiles of a roof, so that the uppermost feather
might be said to be that next its beak and the lowest the
outermost tail feather. As regards the wing, it should
be noted that the first primary is the lowest in point of
overlapping, and if one watches a bird close its wings
the secondaries will be seen folding over the primaries.
In examining the living wing care should be taken to
hold it by the wrist, and not by the tips of the flight
feathers, as a sudden movement on the part of the bird
might dislocate a joint. The elbow may be distinctly
felt on the reverse side of the wing, but is never seen
from above. The thumb may be felt, and its little
group of feathers noted, (fig. 34).
What is known as the leg or shank is a specialized
foot, the joint above corresponding with the humanankle. The knee cap may be felt higher up under the
skin of the flank.
The back claw is more like the human thumb than
the big toe, acting as it does in opposition. It should
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ANIMALS. 125
be noticed that this claw has two joints only, counting
its articulation with the foot, the second claw three joints,
the third four, and the fourth or outside claw five joints.
This is usually the smallest and weakest digit, like the
human little toe.
The neck of the bird commonly takes an S shape,
slipping in and out of a notch in the sternum. When at
ease the S is emphasized with a corresponding fulness
in the neck, while when alarmed the neck is stretched
the S losing its curvature and the neck its fulness. Aseveryone knows who has carved a fowl, the lower back
or dorsal area of, a bird is determined by a fixed bony
framework, and hence is quite incapable of change of
shape.
The anatomical structure of mammals corresponds
more closely with that of man. As in birds, however,
the hands and feet are specialized. What is called the
knee of the foreleg of the horse corresponds with the
human wrist, the hock of the hind leg being analagous
with the heel of man. As in man the shoulder girdle is
connected with the trunk mainly by muscular attach-
ments. Hence the horse jumping off with the force
afforded by the bony continuity of the trunk, and pelvis,
lands with an impact of, say, four tons, on its fore feet,
which, by reason of the elasticity of the attachment of
the shoulders to the trunk, sustain the shock without
injury.
This freedom of the shoulder girdle shows itself very
markedly in loose limbed creatures like the cat when
walking, the slinging of the body between the front legs
causing it to sway. When a fore foot is advanced the
126 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
shoulder on that side is depressed, because the foreleg on
the other side is supporting the weight, the arrangement
reminding one of the slant of the hip-basket when a
person rests the weight on one leg. (fig. 35). In the
case of broad backed animals as the horse, when a hind
leg is advanced or raised from the ground the tilt of the
pelvis is very pronounced.
When studying quadrupeds in motion, the student
should first try to represent the walk of a slowly moving
animal like the cow, which uses its limbs exactly as a
crawling child would do. A hind leg moves forward
followed immediately by the foreleg on the same side.
Then the other hind leg moves, followed by its foreleg.
(fig. 35).
Manuals of comparative anatomy should be con-
sulted for detailed statements of the bony and muscular
structures. Here it will suffice to point out that just as
in man the arm is continuous with the shoulder and the
leg with the hip, so with quadrupeds. The legs should
not be considered merely as those parts which protrude
from the trunk, for the foreleg includes the shoulder
blade, which moves with it, and similarly the hind leg is
involved with the pelvis. In both cases structural lines
reach to the back. (Fig. 35).
In the case of shaggy and hairy animals like the bear
and wolf the set of the hair and the influence of the hair
whorls should be studied.
Speaking generally the mental attitude of the
student is often shown by the too irregular lines of his
drawings of animals. He aims at depicting a large
content of forms, where he should look for controlling
ANIMALS. 127
lines, orderly arrangement and structure. This is
especially true in regard to birds and insects, creatures
which fly. The power of flight implies regularity and
symmetry. Not seldom a drawing of a bird purporting
to be alive, shows, by its raggedness, and by the feathers
sticking out in odd places, that it has been drawn from a
stuffed specimen.
CHAPTER XVIII.
LANDSCAPE.
Drawing from still life from the living figure, and
from the antique, gives practice in construction, line and
tone, but these subjects all suffer from the defect of
being relatively small. When students work out of
doors, whether at buildings or landscape, new problems
crowd upon them. The difficulties of estimating relative
proportions, of, as it were, dilating the eye to embrace a
large object such as a tree or tower, have to be grappled
with, as also the question where one has to begin, what
area is to be taken in, and whether the angle of vision is
to be wide or narrow. For example. Degas, in his
interiors with dancers, embraced a large area, so that one
feels oneself amongst the figures, whereas Corot kept his
figures much of a size, that is, he surveyed the scene from
a distance. Then there is the difficulty of aerial per-
spective, as it is called, quite wrongly, the weakened
accent and blurred detail of distant forms as compared
with those nearer the eye. A distant cow, for instance,
should not be drawn as a foreground object in miniature.
At a certain distance the legs and horns disappear.
Lastly, there is the more prosaic but immediately press-
LANDSCAPE. " 129
ing problem of the vanishing of receding parallels of
building, etc., especially those above the eye.
For discipline in all these matters, buildings afford
excellent material. Turner, by his early studies of
country mansions and ruins, laid the foundation of his
facility in handling masses of architecture.
It has often been remarked that the most difficult
thing to draw out of doors is the earth's surface—the
horizontal plane. Upright things are comparatively
easy. Houses, trees, mountains and people correspond
in position with the vertical plane on which in theory one
is drawing, but fields, roads, rivers, clouds, flights of
birds, etc., at right angles to this plane are apt to give
trouble. The bias of vision causes such objects to be
drawn as if they were oblique planes sloping upwards to
a high, vanishing line. Clouds suffer especially, and a
"vertical sky" is very common in student's work.
In this connexion a flock of sheep would be a good
test of a student's power to depict a horizontal surface.
Their backs form a level plane which persists although
the individual elements move to and fro. Anton Mauveand Jacque drew sheep well constructed, both anatomic-
ally and in the mass.
In reference to this question of the representation of
the horizontal plane, it should be noted that ancient art,
such as the Egyptian tomb paintings and Assyrian bas
reliefs, ignored it in favour of the processional form of
composition, in which the feet rest on what corresponds
with the ground line of formal perspective. One often
finds children doing the same thing; their figures walk
along the bottom edge of the paper, the ground plane
130 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
being assumed. Some of the great Italian decorators
adopted this device, which gave dignity and loftiness to
their compositions. It is to be seen in Mantegna's
"Caesar's Triumph," at Hampton Court.
One of the most fruitful causes of a failure to obtain
horizontality is beginning the foreground too close to the
eye. Corot should be studied in this respect, for, as
remarked above, he generally began his foreground some
distance ahead. In this way his figures are much of a
size without the enormous disproportion between fore-
ground and middle distance figures, which constantly
startle us in modern work, and which the layman instinct-
ively resents,—and rightly, because such work betrays a
failure to understand the necessity of a convention of
representation.
Art students too often think of landscape not as
material for study of form and composition, but as a mere
sketching ground. Incidentally they add to their difficul-
ties by working outdoors only in fine weather, and gen-
erally in July and August, choosing also the middle
hours of the day. They should remember Corot, who,
soon after the sun had risen, shut up his painting box,
remarking that the beauty of the scene had vanished.
Painting in bright sunlight and heat tax the powers of a
well-trained artist, but these very conditions lend them-
selves to drawing, to a certain precision' and fixity of
form, and yet few art students are seen drawing out of
doors, compared with the numbers sketching with water
colour.
Masters of landscape have studied out of doors with
the point from Claude onwards. If composition is the
LANDSCAPE. 13 r
theme, washes of grey or black will give opportunity for
study, which the gay water colour pigments the student
loves to dip in do not allow. They divert his attention
from the fundamental masses of his composition. Such
material as trees, rocks, the surface of water, rough or
smooth, the varying aspects of cloud systems, often con-
fuse the student because its appearance, while based on
well-defined structural laws, yet in its apparent irregular-
ity of contour, or its fugitiveness, presents great difficul-
ties, and he often fails to discern the underlying structure
and order. But if the student is to realize the meaning
of draughtmanship, which, however, is of no value unless
one has something to say, a message to express, all
visible natural phenomena are profitable exercises.
The landscapist, for instance, must make himself
intimately acquainted with tree structure, must knowone species from another, and must devote much time to
drawing rather than painting, because by drawing one
arrives at a clearer analysis of structure, the bones, or
branching structure as seen in winter, the way this is
clothed in summer by foliage, the masses of which have
a characteristic form for each species. Even the kind of
stroke by which the edges of the masses are expressed
must be sought, for example, the saw-like edge of the oak
or the more lobate edge of the walnut or horse chestnut.
The old drawing books of trees were not so much off the
mark, though now considered out-of-date when they
began their study of tree forms with a page of scribbled
foliage—a recipe as it were for each tree, but which the
student will arrive at as a result of his own striving.
The study of rocks, hills and mountains, of reflec-
132 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
tions in water, and the forms of waves and tumblingwater must be studied by the same searching eye, alwayswatching for structure and orderliness of form. Ruskin's
"Modern Painters" contains much that is of great value
in this respect and, apart from its art philosophy, shouldbe studied for its practical art teaching. Ruskin was a
great art teacher, and his exercises were always well con-
ceived.
This is not a manual of perspective, and indeed
students who use their eyes, and occasionally hold uptheir paper to cover the scene they are working from, will
not make outrageous mistakes.
Much of what is known as parallel perspective is
worse than useless, but a course of formal perspective on
common-sense lines, the conditions approximating to
those of ordinary vision and including reflections and
shadows, will be of the greatest assistance, because the
student's attention will be drawn to the broad planes
which form the surfaces of the earth, sea, and sky. These
planes being the groundwork of pictorial composition
perspective enables the student to define their relations
and interpenetration, under the simplest conditions.
CHAPTER XIX.
PLANT FORM.
Mr. R. G. Hatton, in a passage in one of his books,
speaks of the difficulty he finds in conveying to his pupils
his own sense of the peculiar beauty of flowers—a beauty
all their own and quite distinct from that of children or
women.Students' drawings of plants often betray their lack
of appreciation of the beauty of the form they think they
are depicting. Like trees and shrubs, they are invested,
by a careless eye, with the same untidy irregularity. Yet
this is merely the superficial view. If we consider the
delicacy of a seedling, so frail and so liable to all sorts
of accident, the wonder is not that it is irregular, but that
a plant's appearance is in any way orderly and beautiful.
Exposed to a careless foot, cold winds, attacks of insects
or plant parasites, and, above all, to the accidental de-
velopment caused by varying distribution of light, yet it
always shows itself true to the laws of its growth,
arranges itself according to its order among plants, and
in spite of caterpillar holes or broken stems it succeeds,
for only a careless eye fails to see this order, and beauty
of growth, which we call structure.
133
134 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
A plant in flower may be compared with a beautiful
woman putting on her most alluring raiment, and cer-
tainly to succeed in expressing this beauty we must allow
the plant personality, almost we must imagine that weourselves are plants, that we desire to ignore the ravages
of insects, etc., so that we may see the flower as it desires
to be.
To ensure some measure of success in securing order-
liness, we must understand that the method of drawing
previously used is here of the same value. It is drawing
bit by bit, flower, stalk, leaves, as they happen to come,
that produces irregularity and ugliness; and unfortu-
nately flowers lend themselves to this method or want of
it. The plant rather invites a separate scrutiny of its
parts and seems to remain quite like a model sitting
passively, prepared for a long pose. It should be noted,
however, that the flower is not really passive, that it
exhibits energy of growth in all its structure, in the un-
folding of its leaves and flowers, in the new growth from
the axils and in the line or curve of its stems, which varies
in each species, (fig. 38).
This energy in the most delicate of plants is often
unheeded. For instance, the springing forth of the petals
from their base is often rendered with a slack curve quite
unlike the vigorous form of the corolla which the flower
reveals, just as in the case of human action we have seen
that often the drawing makes it tamer and more inclining
to the passive. In this connexion Japanese drawings anjd
prints should be studied. Their renderings of the chry-
santhemum, for example, have all the vigour and move-
ment that can be desired. The petals unfold and twist.
PLANT FORM. 135
and yet show the subordinating power of radiation. Astudent's drawing of the same flower often misses this,
the dominant impression being that of slack untidyness.
Therefore, as the first strokes of a drawing of the
human figure should show its inclination, and the direc-
tions of the torse and limbs, so here the characteristic line
of stem and general contour of mass of foliage or flowers
should first be set down. (figs. 36—38). Mr. Walter
Crane once called this the "invisible" line, to which the
blossoms or leaves conformed. It is a remarkable fact
that if the hand be passed over the flowers or leaves of a
plant, it describes a curve varying according to the type,
exemplifying the law of growth that parts of a living
structure tend to merge into a single form. The authority
just mentioned was fond of drawing a bunch of downyducklings squatting together in the farmyard, producing
in the jnass a strong resemblance to a full-grown duck.
The rounded lines of the elm and chestnut produced by
myriads of small leaf forms, and a similar curve formed
in winter by the leafless twigs are further examples of the
law.
Given a drawing of a plant commenced with main
structural lines, it should proceed to the expression of the
details in the same manner. The groups of leaves being
set down, each leaf may be seen to have its main shape,
no matter how many lobes or divisions into which its edge
breaks up. Each flower, too, has its type form, often
cup-shaped, like the buttercups and wild roses, and no
matter how tormented by wind, etc., the separate petals,
nor how irregularly they are turned or twisted, the main
lines of growth should be carefully looked for, if one
136 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
dared to say it, a drawing of a plant should at the com-
mencement be more orderly and regular in its forms
than the plant appears.
A^ to a knowledge of botanical structure, it may be as
valuable to the student as artistic anatomy when drawing
from the figure, though, as Lewis Day once wrote of
plant drawing, if the eyes are well used the structure will
not go far wrong.
For purposes of study of form, how far should one
take a drawing? There is some difference of opinion
here, but one may say that the limit is reached when the
student's observation fails him. One sees sometimes
plant drawing full of shading that is not so much the
result of observation as of industry.
Drawing from the plant in outline is an attempt to
express the form as it may be required for purposes of
design. But this flat, would-be decorative treatment,
defeats itself, for such a drawing is of use only for cer-
tain kinds of work—flat pattern. A study can never be
bodily appropriated for design purposes. Every etcher
knows that his drawing must contain much more than the
needle can use.
Therefore the suggestion is made here that the plant
drawing instead of being expressed by outline merely,
however careful and deliberate, should be carried as far
as the student's powers allow, first because as an exercise
it is beneficial, showing what degree of refinement anddetailed structure is possible in a drawing, and secondly
because the more completely a student expresses his
drawing, the more likely is he to have mastered the
Fig. 37—^This sketch of a branch of the tulip tree shows that leaves
apparently irregular and wayward in arrangement, conform to underlying
rhythmical shapes, in this case ellipses. The flower is beautifully cup-shaped.
'37
Pic. 38—
^These sketches of plants show that each species has its own curve
or line of growth, too often disregarded by the designer.
.38
PLANT FORM. 139
Structure of the plant, and the more useful will the draw-
ing be for reference.
Design and composition can be treated here only inci-
dentally, but it may be said that the principles underly-
ing these studies, while they may be discovered in all
natural form, may perhaps be seen most clearly in
plant form. The principles of repetition, contrast,
radiation, continuity of line and variety are all clearly
exemplified, which perhaps accounts for the instinctive
way in which assent is given to its appeal to the sense of
beauty, and the general acceptance of plant form as the
universal motive for design.
To take one principle, that of radiation, as an in-
stance, it will be noted how the lines of the plant seem
consciously, as it were, to obey this law, which is clearly
seen in the arrangement of the stems, flowers, leaves, etc.
The structure takes cognizance of all the principles, but
the plant seems to acknowledge radiation as its first law
of beauty in form.
Speaking generally the student of plant form is apt
to produce snippets of detail rather than a carefully com-
posed rendering. Without taking liberties with the
plant the space at one's disposal and the arrangement of
the forms on the page should be carefully considered.
Every drawing should be an exercise in composition.
CHAPTER XX.
DRAWING AS A PREPARATION FORPAINTING.
"Make a careful drawing before commencing to
colour," is a maxim art students hear very often, yet in
«pite of it (or because of it ?) the advice does not always
or often ensure success. It may be conceded, nay
demanded, that the study of colour by painting must be
guarded by careful search after form, without which
colour can hardly be said to exist, and it will be well to
discuss what constitutes a useful preparation for paint-
ing. The difficulty which confronts a student is that for
this groundwork, he must, as a rule, use an implement
other than the brush, thus dividing the work into two
stages, first a drawing made with a point, then a painting
with a brush. With charcoal or pencil one is seduced
into doing the sort of work characteristic of the imple-
ment. Assuming the exercise to be a portrait in oil, a
more or less complete expression of the model is often
made with charcoal, pencil, or chalk, outlines of features,
etc., being firmly drawn, outlines which one is dismayed
to find, disappear under the first broad strokes of the
"brush, or if one firmly resolves to keep within one's
-edges, the paint shows hard and meagre at the edges,
140
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142
DRAWING AS A PREPARATION FOR PAINTING. 145
and, on the canvas being held up to the light, the con-
tours appear as haloes surrounding the forms, indicating
an absence of paint, and consequently a poor way of
painting, a wretched technique.
Now it is precisely along those contours that much of
the work lies. Here are the "passages" of colour, where
tone and colour change or pass across. The student
should weld his edges, here melting into a broad envelop-
ment, there being brought sharply together. In the
Venus of Velasquez as already mentioned, the contours
of cheek and shoulder are blurred, whereas in passages
round the knees the edges are well defined, because
these areas are more sharply focused.
Therefore, if the student is interested in the painting
of his edges, it will be seen that a preparatory drawing in
another medium may be a positive hindrance. Further,
if he concentrates too early on the details, his planes will
suffer. Whether the painting is to be finished "au
premier," or in successive stages matters not, the fact
remains that a detailed initial drawing of the forms is
worse than useless. Nothing written here, however,
must be seized upon as an excuse for haste or careless-
ness ; the placing made with charcoal should be carefully
considered, and the strokes dusted out if need be, until
lines significant of the planes, and showing the general
direction of the forms and their proportion one to
another have been settled. This is not easy if the
student, as is often the case, is gloating over the
"portrait," which should be achieved, however, by right
method and not consist in tips for securing likeness.
Especially should the torse be considered. It is in work-
144 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
ing out these broad planes that the student really learns
to paint : for, with the background, they afford ample
space wherein to wield the brush. The planes, of course,
are to be seen in the head also, but they are smaller and
more complicated. Unfortunately, students are not
seldom so preoccupied with the portrait that the torse
receives but a small share of attention. It is perhaps the
desire to make a portrait rather than to learn to paint that
brings about the distressing medley of colours on face
and body often seen on the beginner's canvas. Colour,
instead of being united, is isolated, in spots of manyhues, unrelated, like a patchwork quilt. But the study
of colour, like that of drawing, should concern itself first
with the big facts. The novice fails to see that every
person has a complexion varying in each individual case,
and showing not only in the face, but in the hands and
throughout the body. Whatever variations are made in
local colour should be carefully considered in relation to
this general hue. Hence the value of painting from the
human figure, giving as it does practice in generaliza-
tions in regard to colour, and in looking at colour in the
mass, just as in drawing, it demands search for main
directions and chief planes to which the detail should be
subordinated.
When a study for oil painting is being prepared,
charcoal should first be used to search out the com-
position, the relations of the masses and the directions of
the forms, all details being disregarded, (fig. 39). This
can then be lightly dusted off, so as to leave no
extraneous matter on the canvas, and a brush dipped in
umber and rubbed on the palette until nearly dry, may
DRAWING AS A PREPARATION FOR PAINTING. 145
be employed to fix the main forms, and carry the prepara-
tion a stage further. The brush should be dragged over
the surface so as not to fill up the tooth of the canvas with
paint. This broad edge suggests envelopment and dis-
courages tight painting. If desired, a clean brush
dipped in turpentine may be used to sharpen the contour
where contrast is required. That is, the whole of the
passages may be studied in line before painting begins.
It is however in water colour that the evil effects of a
bad preparation are most clearly seen. The drawing is
done according to tradition with the lead pencil, the
seductive influence of which leads the student to make a
study comflete in itself, the addition of colour resulting
in a muddled and inartistic performance. This con-
fusion comes from making a sharp distinction between
drawing and painting, as earlier it has been seen to be
made between drawing and shading. But whereas oil
painting is painting, it is better to consider water colour
as drawing, especially when used transparently on a
white surface, a method which should be practised by
every student before attempting gouache or mixed
methods. All judges speak of water colour drawings,
and in the early artists' colourman's catalogue, the water
colour brush is referred to as a "pencil," a name which it
would be useful to resuscitate, for beginners seem to
regard a brush as an implement for sfreading or flooding
colour, ignoring its chief merit and one which its makers
show most care in obtaining, a flexible point surpassing
even the pen in incisiveness and fluency. It may be
noted here that while in the west, one or two brushes, all
of the same shape are generally considered sufficient
146 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
equipment by the student of water-colour, in Japan
brushes are made specially for certain effects, wide flat
brushes for broad washes, long pointed ones for drawing
and writing, etc., so that the outfit comprises manybrushes.
It might be mentioned, also, that students are often
the proud owners of brushes that while effective once
have long outworn their usefulness. A watercolour
brush, the point of which has disappeared, can only be
used for rough work. For successful drawing, a student
must periodically add to his stock of brushes.
The Japanese painter does no preliminary sketching.
He at once makes his drawing, and backs it up widi
washes of colour. The western student, aiming at other
results feels the necessity for a more tentative method,
and certainly, if the caution that he is throughout makinga drawing in colour be insisted on, there is no reason whythe pencil preparation should betray a lack of unity with
the following stage in colour. And as it is to be a draw-
ing done in transparent colour, directly and without
rubbing or washing out, there is need for this preparation
to be more intimate and complete than in the case of the
oil study.
But students, ever anxious to indulge their taste in
colour, are prone to slur over this preparation. Theyhave a notion that the strokes of the brush need not show,
forgetting that every time it is laid upon the paper it
makes a mark of definite shape, whether dark or light.
The most frequent cases of insufficient preparation occur
in outdoor landscape composition, where the boundaries
of the forms are hastily sketched without regard to their
DRAWING AS A PREPARATION FOR PAINTING. 147
Structure or their edge contrasts. In such study the
students are faced with a fresh complication. In their
studio work, from the figure or still life, the compara-
tive simplicity of the forms has allowed of a fairly com-
plete rendering. But out-of-doors there are numberless
small shapes which, though merging into larger ones, yet
distract the eye by their multitude and complexity. Themultitudinous forms, such as blades of grass, leaves of
trees, cloud forms, etc., present a real difficulty to the
beginner. Often he solves the problem in a utilitarian
and inartistic fashion by stroking, spotting or dashing
irregular splashes on the paper to imitate this apparent
irregularity, and in the process loses the orderliness, the
series, the radiating arrangements of leaves and
branches.
Here an insistence on a right preparation may save
the student from falling too low in the artistic scale. Hecan be shown that the more complex the subject the more
necessary is it to search out the significant forms, that
likeness must be got through choice and not through
'dashing the brush on the paper in the hope of securing
happy shapes, and that everything that is to be coloured
should first be plotted out. Some of Turner's unfinished
drawings should be examined from this point of view.
Such importance did he attach to a good preparation, and
so sure was his colour sense, that he not seldom made his
drawing in pencil, giving all the time to this stage, and
coloured it when away from the subject. Close scrutiny
shows that his lines really prepare for the colouring ; the
work is not a drawing painted over.
In beginners' work one often finds pencilling which
14-8 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
is of no use to the colouring, but rather a hindrance;
features, hands, etc., are sketched in carelessly and with
a profusion of strokes that takes no count of the subtlety
of the brush point and its power of definition. Shading
especially is out of court, leading, as it does, to dirty
colour.
On the other hand, all should be carefully drawn,
as for instance the space for two hands clasped in the
lap of a female sitter, (fig. 40.) Every portion
of the composition should be prepared, the mainmasses and their relations, the directions of forms, while
the position of details, such as the features, should be
indicated without being completed in terms of a pencil.
Such preparation strengthens the composition, gives
emphasis to the connecting lines, and finally gives the
brush full play in its charming power of elaborating
detail.
The pencil work, of course, may be carried very far
30 long as it does not interfere with the right function of
the brush.
A simple exercise would be a still life group (fig.
41), and it may be noted here that a subject which suits
oil painting, revelling as it does in rich dark colour, is
quite unsuitable for water colour if its quality and charm
are to be considered. That is to say, if the student is to
be given opportunity of studying his medium, in this case
water colour, the masses should approach lighter tone
rather than darker. Rich, glowing hues in water colours
are only possible if the study is kept small in scale.
Finally, the contour of the dark area should be drawn
within, that of the light, outside the form.
Fig. a I A water colour stud)- of still lite with a pencil preparation. The
pencil lines are emphatic where strong passages occur, but are lighter or
even disappear according to the degree of envelopment of the edge. Thepencilling is not a drawing, but a preparation.
*l >^
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Fic, ^2—A drawing b) Holbein.
150
[Windsor Castle.
CHAPTER XXI.
CONVENTION.
Hitherto drawing has been treated as based on
appearance. "Is it like?" has been the test, though
always accompanied by the proviso that selection must
be the student's aim. To draw everything the eye can
discern is impossible, and it has been shown that the
beginner's mass of unselected detail reveals his low level
of artistic outlook. Though truth to nature has been
insisted on in so far as the planes of the figure, and
indeed, the beauty of its pose are revealed by light and
'dark, yet constantly in these pages the student has been
cautioned that absolute fidelity to nature is impossible,
and that any attempt in that direction leads only to a
pseudo-photographic presentment essentially vulgar and
inartistic. But if it be assumed that the student has somecontrol over his vision, that he can face his subject calmly
and set down with some precision his selected facts, the
time has now come for him to see that this is only the
beginning, that the practical convention of the particular
form of art he has chosen will compel him still further to
select and co-ordinate his facts in harmony with the
necessary simplifications which his art demands, whether
151
152 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
it be painting, engraving, mural decoration or illustra-
tion.
Of course drawing may be an end in itself. Theportrait drawings of Ingres show that. One might have
added those of Holbein, but for the fact that these were
made as studies for portraits. Here is a typical instance
of what is meant by convention. Holbein, following the
custom of his day, and a very good one, understood it to
be his business to master the forms of his portrait,
especially the features of the face. Whether he intended
to transfer them to the canvas is a secondary matter. Hecertainly drew as if he did. What he wanted was the
actual limiting lines of his subject's features—all includ-
ing the construction of the planes was subordinate to
that, and in consequence, while drawing these boundaries
with the most scrupulous care, he ignored in a great
measure, and necessarily so, the give and take of the
lighting, the envelopment, the forward and backward
movement of the edges. Thus in the drawing of Sir
Elliott Knight (fig. 42) the nose is drawn with a firm line
throughout, though it is certain that under the general
condition of lighting that part of the nose seen against
the cheek would not in actual vision supply so strong and
accented a line. But Holbein wanted to be sure of his
form, and without conscious intention on his part, his
convention created itself. Within these limits what
delicacy and subtlety of vision can be discerned
!
Almost it seems as if the restrictions under which he
worked enabled him to see and represent with a maxi-
mum of refinement. If the line between the closed lips
for instance be examined, it will be seen how it varies.
CONVENTION. 153
how unlike it is to the hard wire-like one might ignorantly
assume would suffice for Holbein's purpose. It varies
throughout its length, sdftening here, tightening there,
showing that far from drawing it as a mere line, Holbein
searched out the form of the line above, below, and
especially the two ends of it. One might examine all
his forms, with a like result. It seems ungracious after
this to point out that Holbein is uncertain sometimes of
the alignment of his features, that he occasionally places
the eyes too high, and that he frequently makes the
further eye too large, while noting however its distinctive
forms.
Starting then from Holbein's method we might
assume a priori that each form of art demands its ownconvention of drawing, which has linked with it a depend-
ent grace and beauty. The sketches of Alfred Stevens
have already been referred to as examples of drawings
made for a definite end. They are mainly studies for
sculpture, and in them are seen the master's efforts to
attain his ideal. He demanded the highest degree of
plasticity, drawing his figures with solidity and weight,
for they were to be translated into stone or bronze. Heignored the accidentals of light and shade, and rough
hewed his figures with broad strokes indicating the actual
structure, much as a biologist cuts up his tiny bone into
a number of sections, or a geographer constructs a relief
map by contour lines, (figs. 61, 62).
More important still to Stevens was the movementof his figures. Here the meticulous exactness of
Holbein's forms is replaced by a rain of lines, one might
say scribbled in, but always with the aim of securing the
154 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
Utmost freedom of movement and poise. He moved the
lines, say, of the back twice or thrice, he drew an arm in
several positions. In a word the master used drawing
for his own artistic purpose, made of it a tool to express
his ideals.
Each form of pictorial representation in turn could
be taken and shown to demand from drawing a conven-
tion suited to its needs. The etcher seizes on the great
planes of his subject; he makes use of force to hold his
foreground forms near the eye, but with the tenderest
delicacy his distances float away from it. Fig. 43shows that the drawings have been made by
an etcher; without the sub-conscious prompting of the
acid bath it is not likely that the force of the darks and
the delicacy of the more distant parts would have been
rendered so directly.
Similarly fig. 44 a study for an etching shows
clearly that it has been made with the resources of the
craft always in view. The great sign and foreground
darks dominate the composition, while the background
is kept tender and quiet, as would happen were it lightly
bitten on a plate. But more than this, there is the know-
ledge of the limitations of etching, that it is a convention
and not an imitative process, that it depends on variety
of line and shape, hence an insistence on these. Every
window in the background has its individual treatment
:
no two are alike ; also many parts are worked to a closer
degree of finish than the etching was intended to display,
for it is impossible to put the whole of a drawing into an
etching; one must have more than one can use in
needling the plate from a drawing.
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Fig. j|.4—A Jr,u\ing in lead pencil and black chalk nn cream-colnurcd
wrapping paper.
56
CONVENTION. 157
The history of illustration in black and white pro-
vides further examples of convention. The illustrators
of the early sixties, who had succeeded in throwing off
the thraldom of the engraver with his cross hatching
tools, mechanical aids and ruled lines, though insisting
on their work being followed in facsimile, yet found a
convention necessary, one with freedom though still
based on that of Bewick, and one that followed more or
less closely what has been set forth in these pages, that
form is expressed in light areas by darks, and in dark
areas by lights. In the dark areas they used the white
line in the way we associate with Bewick. But in the
light areas they emphasized their forms clearly with the
black line. Examples of these illustrations may be
seen in old volumes of the "Gornhill," "Once a Week,"
"Good Words," etc.
Phil May, who built up his own convention by elim-
ination, sometimes omitted the line of the white collar.
It might be said that this was a retrograde step, for the
omission suggested an objective vision which contrasted
oddly with the rest of his very abstract convention. Buthe perhaps considered it as a joke, or more probably it
assisted in giving that looseness and freedom which he
desired.
His work is rather misleading to young students whothink that they can do easily the same sort of thing, but
his method as disclosed by his friends and himself is
another example of the strenuous drawing necessary to
the convention he employed. He really drew most
minutely and carefully ; then went over the drawing with
his fat line, omitting details, or redrew from memory. A
158 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
friend told the writer of a policeman posing in May'sstudio. The artist made drawing after drawing till the
floor was littered, then, the sitter paid and gone, another
drawing was made embodying the character as learned
in making the previous sketches. The two methodsemployed both led to the same result, insistence on
character by quality of line and omission of superfluous
detail.
If the subject be that of mural painting, which pre-
serves the flatness of the wall by the absence of concen-
trated composition, or of violent colour and forcible
lights and darks, a convention of representation mustbe followed which harmonizes the above conditions.
One naturally turns to the Italian traditional practice of
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. There the
technique of buon fresco, the only method of painting
without vehicle other than water, on fresh or damp plaster
necessitated a clearly defined contour. The work had to
proceed with some speed, for in a short time the plaster
dried, rendering further progress in the same manner
impossible. Thus the conditions militated against real-
istic work in light and shade even if such had been under-
stood in those times. The outline cartoon was traced on
the still soft plaster, and the colouring proceeded without
delay.
Unfortunately the climate of our great cities has been
declared unsuited to this simple and beautiful technique,
although Mrs. Sargant Florence asserts that it stands
the ordinary weather conditions of this country very well
indeed. She points out that pure fresco flourished in
districts with a high rainfall. Her own frescoes at Oak-
CONVENTION. 159
ham and elsewhere have stood the test of this climate
satisfactorily. The influence of fresco has been felt by
succeeding styles of mural painting, although for a time
the craft wandered in the dangerous paths of realism.
Mural painting then may be taken as the type of a
number of crafts where drawing is viewed without insist-
ence on light or shade, or rather the emphasis is laid on
the line and structure, the accidents of light being
ignored. Moody's interesting chart of the styles of
painting should be consulted in this connexion. In this
he shows that the lights and darks, sparkling but spotty,
of the imitative Dutch panel pictures contrast with the
broad simple shadows melting into the light, of the
Florentine frescoes.
This supplies the clue to drawing practice in the life
class. While students are studying the principles on
which the representation by appearance is based, it is
well to make the problem as simple as possible, avoiding
complications of lighting. These arrangements have
been noted earlier. The lights should be kept strictly
in one direction and limited in area, so that the planes are
clearly separated by light and dark.
But the advanced student should prepare to study
the figure under less restricted conditions. The light
should be expanded so that it envelops the figure,
reduces the strength of the dark planes, and eliminates
small spotty darks, while the contour becomes more com-
pletely visible, this being assisted by varying the back-
ground, making it lighter than the bulk of the light areas
of the figure, or darker than the masses of dark. In the
early Florentine frescoes, the backgrounds are generally
i6o DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
light in tone, while the backgrounds of the frescoes of
Pompeii are dark in tone or rich in colour, the forms
telling light against them.
Under such conditions the student will be con-
strained to adopt to some extent a linear convention.
The light and shade are still there but reduced in inten-
sity, and subordinated to the contour. But it should be
understood that structure and movement are more im-
portant than ever, for on them success will mainly
depend.
It is needless to investigate the conventions of other
forms of plastic art in order to see what part drawing
plays; the heedful student will do that for himself.
But ever as he advances in the study of drawing, he is
conscious of new complexities ; the better he draws the
more conscious will he be of his limitations and his
inability to achieve what he desires, and it is well, for
one who draws with facility and ease is on the downwardpath of mannerism and stereotyped form.
CHAPTER XXII.
DRAWING FOR ILLUSTRATORS.
There comes a time when the student leaves his
school, has finished (save the word) his period of study.
He is to begin his art career, whether as sculptor,
painter, illustrator or designer. What is his attitude
towards drawing ? Does he regard it as a discipline from
which he is at last happily emancipated ? In his freedom
he may be pardoned for at first feeling a little con-
temptuous of the methods and precepts of the classroom.
He is now a professional with no longer unlimited time
to build up the stages of his work, which has to be turned
out with regularity and promptness. It must be done in
some fashion, and whether he be a portrait painter or the
merest hack advertisement draughtsman, the same bondof necessity lies heavy on both vocations. In other
words, the newly-fledged art worker is in danger of
becoming merely a professional, and ceasing to be a
student.
But if the student's interest in form has been aroused
and stimulated, if logical methods of work have been
faithfully pressed upon him, he will have acquired an
attitude of mind which can never be eradicated. Granted
i6i
1 62 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
that the special conditions of his life work are onerous,
that they tend to crush the artistic spirit, yet the artist
rises superior to commercial and almost degrading tram-
mels, and produces good work in spite of, perhaps
because of these fetters. Of course every art worker must
know his job. The portrait painter must be able to pro-
duce a likeness, the etcher must know how to bite a plate
with all possible precision, the illustrator must be able to
use his pen and brush freely. But beyond that, in the
doing of the work, no matter how poorly paid or how un-
interesting it may be, the worker, if he is an artist, will
give something above what he is paid for, some touch of
the art spirit within him which sustains him and reminds
him that art is his career.
That is to say he studies at his craft, he remains a
student and as such drawing will be his life-long com-
panion. Take for instance the illustrator, who is asked
to depict scenes and incidents often chosen by authors
and editors without any eye to artistic motive and effect.
But in spite of that he need not despair, for the poorest
situation includes the most interesting material in the
world—people—and if he has the illustrator's spirit he
will not fail to be interested in his work, and make it
interesting to others. His will be a busy life, for to him
all people are possible subjects for his pencil. His study
in the life room was only the beginning ; now he must
look for his models everywhere. He will always be
searching for type and character. He may use a sketch
book, but his memory training will be of still more value
to him. Thus the lot, the happy lot, of the illustrator is
to study continually and by remaining a student, his
DRAWING FOR ILLUSTRATORS. 163
work will show increasing character, freshness andpliability.
The designer on his part, must accept this necessity
for the search for form. The flowers of the field, insects,
birds, clouds, lines of land and sea, animals and people,
are all his province. The methodical worker will store
his studies in portfolios ; the others will make them on
backs of envelopes and lose them, but it matters not if
the eye is quickened, and the mind stored with form.
All branches of art exhibit the same dependence
upon drawing. The numberless pencil studies of Con-
stable show his interest in tree structure, the momentarysketches of Rodin, his search for new and unexpected
movements, while the drawings of Gainsborough sug-
gested the composition and arrangement, and enabled
him to revise his ideals freely, unhampered by the fetters
with which oilpaint once laid upon the canvas and left to
dry binds a painter's freedom to choose and alter. Theportrait heads of Holbein have been already referred to
as an example of drawing put to a direct practical use bythe painter, and certainly few portrait painters like to
attack a canvas without preliminary studies. Reference
may be made to the masterly charcoal drawings by Mr.Sargent preparatory to painting. Here the material is
used with directness and force, its qualities being ex-
ploited with great skill. The evident intention of the
studies is to investigate the character of the sitter, not to
obtain actual outlines for tracing as in the case of
Holbein, but as a means of getting into close touch with,
the personality, searching for the forms and accents
1 64 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
which give at once Ukeness and character. Lastly
one may refer to an immediately practical form
of illustration. The number of publications and
magazines devoted to engineering of all kinds is increas-
ing and will increase. In regard to the illustrations
required, photography once so depended upon is prov-
ing a failure, for its focus just misses the precision
required, while it becomes impossible, when dark
interiors have to be revealed or when exterior coverings
are assumed to be removed to show mechanism.
Therefore a new convention of drawing machinery is
growing up, demanding a high degree of appreciation of
the appearance of things together with a sound know-
ledge of perspective, geometry and mechanical structure.
The draughtsman by the unaided use of his pencil,
without quadrants, tee squares and pearwood curves
must be able to explain in his drawing how a machine
works, and express with precision the relations of such
mechanism as elaborate gearing and valves seen in per-
spective. Only the well-trained student can grapple
with the formidable difficulties such subjects present,
while the simplicity of the means brings about its ownconvention, and with it a clear articulate expression,
apart from the practical value of the drawing. That is
to say, a drawing of machinery in the hands of an artist
becomes a work of art.
One returns to the truth that what the artist chooses
to interest himself in is suitable for art expression nomatter what may be its nature. We are emancipated
from the sham ruins and picturesqueness of the i8th
century, those mannerisms of the great Italian style from
DRAWING FOR ILLUSTRATORS. 165
i
Botticelli onwards which later ages appropriated while
losing its spirit. The early Italians, the Trecento and
Quattrocento artists were too interested in their owntime to hanker after the picturesque. They drew build-
ings for instance, raw new as they saw them. And to-day
we may find suitable material for the study of drawing
close at hand without travelling round the world for
strange and stimulating forms. No longer need the
world be divided into two categories, interesting and
commonplace, for students are using their eyes as did
the Italians of the fourteenth century, and find interest
of form in the commonest material. Even to fully
express a matchbox would tax the powers of the best
trained artist.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE DRAWINGS OF THE MASTERS.
The first known drawings and paintings by man are
to be found in the caves of the Pyrenees and the Dor-
dogne district, once tenanted by the later Palaeolithic
race. Much attention has of late been paid to these
works, and reproductions are fairly common, a series
being on view in the Natural History Museum at South
Kensington. The paintings of bison and other animals
on the ceiling of one of the chambers of the cave of
Altamira in Northern Spain, may be instanced amongthe finest of the examples of this early art. They show
the preoccupation of the men of this period. They were
hunters, had no domestic animals with the doubtful ex-
ception of the rough ponies of the period, no pottery for
drinking from, and practised no tillage. But in physical
form and brain capacity they were the equal of modern
races and must not be confused with the earlier beetle
browed Neanderthal man of whom nothing is knownother than that he fabricated stone implements,
possessed fire, and buried his dead. Practically all the
cave paintings, with the scratchings on bone, and the
bone and ivory sculpture, represent animals, though here
1 66
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Fk. 46.—A brush drawing from a white Athenian vase (c}rLndrical). Though there
are puzzling details such as the smallness of the man's hands, the parallelism of his feet,
etc., yet the purity of line and the suggestion of form should be closcl}' studied.
[British Museum.
168
THE DRAWINGS OF THE MASTERS. 169
and there are found statuettes of female figures mostly
gross in form.
The roof of Altamira is covered with full-sized col-
oured drawings of paintings of animals, bison, horses,
deer and pigs. They are outlined in black and washed
over with red, brown and yellow pigments made from
various iron and manganese earths. They show a cor-
rectness of proportion and a freedom of movement which
have never been surpassed while the extremely simpli-
fied conventions used to express the structure and hair
growths, have nothing in common with the childish
scrawls of most living races of savages. The placing of
the legs is practically in accord with photographs of
moving animals testifying to the artist's quickness of eye
and keenness of observation. In particular some draw-
ings of mortally wounded bison in the last death spasm,
with their legs crumpled beneath them and the tail vibrat-
ing over the back show how well the draughtsman
memorized a phenomenon with which he must have been:
perfectly familiar.
Other famous examples are the drawings of mam-moths, deer and horses on the walls of caves and on bone.
The drawing of the reindeer, from Thayngen, and the
three red deer crossing a river, from Lorthet, {Ancient
Hunters. Sollas), show a close observation of the
animals and a certain ease and freedom in representing
them. They reveal the anatomical knowledge of one
who has repeatedly skinned and dismembered his prey,
the habits and movements of which have been his life-
long study. And these drawings were made by a manso primitive that like the beasts of the field he had to go
170 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
down to the river to drink. It may be said here that
though he may have had to risk the sabre-toothed tiger
and the great cave bear, yet the strange, enormous rep-
tilian creatures, with whom he is sometimes associated
in certain modern humorous drawings, had become
extinct ages before.
Of what we call composition we must not expect
much. On the roof at Altamira the creatures are fitted
in as closely as possible, some being superimposed on
others, the idea apparent being to give the impression of
a great herd. Elsewhere we get the usual panoramic
composition of early art much as in the Egyptian and
Assyrian freizes. One animal follows another, and oc-
casionally there is a somewhat impressionistic repre-
sentation of a herd of horses or deer indicated by a row
of heads and foreparts much as one would see glancing
along the front rank.
What strikes one is that this earliest art is repre-
sentational rather than consciously decorative. It maybe that the artist connected his picture with the
desires of his appetite, much as children, in the absence
of the object they desire say a boat or doll, will draw it
and thus to some extent satisfy their craving. Appar-
ently this early man desired his drawings in line and
colour to be as like as possible, which is perhaps why Mr.
Clive Bell dislikes them. They may even be symbolic
of food to be used by the soul after death as in Egyptian
art which also exhibits exceedingly well-drawn animals.
But in Egypt had grown up an ancient civilization
where the priesthood ruled and prescribed minutely the
conventions of the forms in the paintings which min-
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17>
Fig. 48—A drawing b)' Holbein. Great care has been given to the
eyebrows and the line between the lips. The far eye appears somewhat
too large. [British Museum.
172
Fic. 49—A drawing by Holbein. Certain forms which were evidentl)'
deemed essential to the likeness have been careiull)- redrawn with a hard
point on the thin films of charcoal or chalk. These are the eyelids, the
nostrils and the line separating the lips. [Windsor Castle.
"73
Fig. 50—In this drawing by Leonardo da Vinci the|features have moreveracity than the fanciful armour, and bear a great resemblance to the elder
Tedeschi, a model known to a generation of art students. Such a profile
could only have been drawn of an Italian by an Italian. [British Museum.
74
THE DRAWINGS OF THE MASTERS. 175
istered to the national religion. Reference has been
made already to the way in which man was portrayed in
the Egyptian canon of form. Apparently however the
animals had escaped the attention of those who laid
down the rules of representation, and in consequence as
we see if we consult the book of the Dead, reproduced
by the British Museum Authorities, or the wall paintings
and drawings, the cats, dogs and especially the baboons
and birds are lifelike in their proportions, structure and
movement, drawn as they are in much the same simple
convention as was used by the cave men.
Assyrian art runs a parallel course. The bas-reliefs
in the British Museum are cut in soft gypsum or alabas-
ter, the work of a victorious people in a hurry, and often
the relief is so slight that the work may be considered as
a drawing. Here again there is a convention of the
human figure, with swollen muscles on a brawny frame,
and again also the sculptors seem to have looked at
animals with a clearer eye than when they attempted
men. Their horses are good, and their lions better, the
most famous being the slab whereon is depicted a lioness
dragging herself along the ground, her hind quarters
having been paralysed by an arrow, (fig. 45.) She is
roaring, the skin of her nose wrinkled in agony. Therelief is little more than i inch, and again one can say
that the artist must have witnessed this sight, and set
down with convincing clearness his memory vision of it.
Following the line of successive nationalities one
inquires what drawings were made by the Greeks. For-
tunately their drawings are plain to see on their vases.
At last the artists have become interested in the forms
176 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
of man and though we may assume that the vase painter
was little more than a workman yet the best vase paint-
ings lag but little behind the best Greek sculpture. It
will be convenient to examine the white vase paintings,
where the backgrounds are not painted in. They are
called paintings but they are really brush drawings and
done with an ease, and fluency of expression that makes
them worthy of the closest study. The draughtsman
must have worked with some speed ; he had to turn out
a quantity, and his convention arose out of the necess-
ities of his occupation. He used his line with the utmost
economy, but his eye, his draughtsman's soul was all the
time concentrated on the point of his brush, which pro-
duced a line of the utmost flexibility and sensibility.
(fig 46.) From the Greeks to the medievals is a long step
both as regards technique and sentiment. Once more
drawing has been grasped by the priesthood to serve
religion. The figure has to express hope, fear, rever-
ence. The features are expanded until they fill the
face ; the hands stretched out with stiff fingers implore,
deprecate, or command. The figure is hidden in the
long lines of the draperies. The line is still there but
it is now the convention of a craft of which the conditions
are necessarily stringent to a degree—^that of stained
glass. The form is subordinated to the leads of the
window, the angularity of the medieval forms being asso-
ciated with the special quality of the material—glass.
Another step, and one comes to the man who stood at
the parting of the ways—^Albert Durer—who inherited
the gothic tradition of angular forms, piped draperies
and scriptural subject matter, yet reached out to the
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Fk;. 52—A chalk drawing h) Raphael. 'I'he interest in form should be
noted. It is lull of overlapping contours. The drawing is hut little
concerned with the photographic aspect of the model.
'78
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Fig. 5 3—A drawing b)- Ruhens in black and red cliajk. He drew moreby the lights than the darks. We may be certain that there was more tone
under the chin than is shewn by him. But he wanted this to be not a
light and shade study merely ; the expression of the sitter, alert, listening,
arch, is what he has achieved. The drawing is full of vitality. The face
seems alive. [British Museum.
179
Fk.. 5-1-—A chalk drav\ing by Rubens. The fine line descending from the
head to the knees should be noted as also that uniting the arms.
[British Museum.
THE DRAWINGS OF THE MASTERS. i8i
Renaissance, with its renewed interest in the unclothed
figure as seen in classic myth, and in the mass of archi-
tectural and other forms which accentuate the new style.
The conditions of Durer's career as an artist madehim the very type of a draughtsman. He was to be the
world's great illustrator, and as such he had an intense
curiosity in the forms of things. He drew the ancient
roofs of his native town, horses, men in armour, every-
thing he might want in his engravings and woodcuts, and
as an illustrator he makes use of all his drawings. Like
the Japanese he drew and redrew his subject until he
was line perfect, and like them he was always simplify-
ing, refining his line down to its lowest terms, often until
it became a mere decorative motive, a trick of the
pen. But this simplification forced him to study struc-
ture, with the result that every stroke of Durer's repre-
sents a definite fact; his simplest drawings are full of
anatomy, whether they be of plants, animals, or persons.
(fig. 47.) Walter Crane must have studied Durer, and
his mannerisms came from his efforts to make his line
express as much as possible of the form, the bend of the
wrist or ankle, the twisting of the neck, and the radiation
of the toes or fingers, with the result that people whowere not interested in structure cried out that he was
deforming the figure. The criticism shows the necessity
of a draughtsman constantly comparing his convention
with natural form, of self criticism. He should avoid,
and it is the most difficult thing to do so, falling into ruts
of expression, mannerisms, that is unnatural form. It is
the young student curiously enough whose work is full of
undigested conventions for he seems to absorb them from
1 82 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
the nursery onwards. He unconsciously abstracts from
the work of the artist he admires, its tricks of handling,
rather than the good qualities revealed only on close
study. That is why copying is to be deprecated, for this
practice does not always imply study. What study is
and what it involves students will do well to ponder over.
Of Holbein much has been said in these pages. Like
Durer he was a great pen draughtsman, and could design
with facility in the new style, with its classical mould-
ings, capitals and acanthus. But when he confronted
his sitter he put all the new forms and conventions aside,
and looked at his model with an eye cleared of Italian
motes and beams, (figs. 42, 48, 49.)
In Italy Giotto broke away from the more formal
Byzantine manner. His figures have weight and power,
though his accessories, his hills, trees and animals are
the merest recollections. But he took the turn towards
naturalism and all through the fourteenth century the
Italians were examining nature and trying to draw and
paint like the model, though not knowing quite how it
was to be done. Botticelli has been referred to as one
who used the nude figure constantly with much poetic
grace, yet without a clear knowledge of its structure and
articulations. It was Leonardo da Vinci with the inqui-
sitive scientific spirit and full measure of the organizing
faculty who did everything to form what may be called
the academic convention, especially in regard to light
and shade, except actually to set up a school of art. (fig.
50.) The study of perspective, involving shadows and
reflections, and of anatomy with its dissections did muchto direct the study of art in the same path.
Fig. 55—This unassuming drawing b}' Ruhens shows beautiful rh}'thm of
line. The pose quiet as it is, is full of action. The feet should be noted,
drawn as one form, and the difficult turn of the head has been attacked.
Many students do not realize the loss of length in such a pose and maketheir sitting and crouching figures much too high. [British Museum.
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Fig. 57—One of Ingres' portrait drawings of which he made a great
number while at Rome. Full of search for form and rhythmical line.
Note how the two arms have been unified. F.very fold in the clothes tells
of the form beneath.
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p[c. 58—A chalk drawing by J. F. Millet which shows his method clearly.
He has been quick to seize the forms which emerge from the heavy,
hanging garments. The drawing has a rhythm of its own.
186
THE DRAWINGS OF THE MASTERS. 187
In the drawings of Mantegna one sees a closer return
to the classic spirit. So insistent is the line that the
shading is simpler and more summary in its method than
the convention used by the northern draughtsmen, of
whom Durer may be cited as the chief example. Durer
covers his forms with lines drawn round them each sug-
gesting a section through the mass, a convention muchused by the northern engravers and etchers. Manteg-
na's shading consists of straight lines drawn diagonally,
the easiest movement of the hand across the paper.
This convention while it does not allow of a certain over-
realized, almost stereoscopic form which is seen in work
produced by the northern engravers, is simple and direct
and defines the planes more clearly. The tendency ever
since has been to adopt it for the study of form, and
mediums like charcoal, chalk, pencil and pen lend
themselves to it. Even a modern pen draughtsman like
Mr. G. D. Armour uses it almost exclusively.
Michael Angelo, though a giant yet learned all his
academic teachers could impart, and transformed his
study by his volcanic genius. When he drew it was to
reveal structure, and especially the overlapping of coii^
tours, rather than the appearance, though if he chose he
could load his surfaces with shading in the correct
Italian style. He was preoccupied with the figure as
his raw material in design ; he combined nudes, grouped
them, flung them together in ropes, festoons and swirls,
held together by his great line running round torses and
along limbs, (fig. 51.)
Rubens trained in Italian methods made numberless
drawings and sketches for compositions; many of the
1 88 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
latter however are painted in monochrome. His work
shows how a man is dominated by .his own tempera-
ment, and also by the tendencies of his age. Womensmile, men strike flamboyant attitudes, horses prance,
curtains swirl in the wind, and vivid masses of red ener-
gise the composition. The Philip and his Queenpainted by him are portraits of people well pleased with
themselves and in robust health. When one turns to
the portraits of the same people by Velasquez, a man of
their own race and therefore more likely to realize the
national character, very different personalities are
revealed, cold, indifferent and passive.
The drawings of Rubens show equally this exuber-
ance of spirit. He is one of the very few who could
command a full measure of vitality and action; his
figures move with freedom, with an amplitude of gesture
as well as of form. (figs. 54 55.) His study of Michael
Angelo shows in his work though mingled with his owntemperament ; in place of the latter's elemental violence
he substituted a jovial turbulence. But he drew as he
painted with a mastery over his material. He exercised
a strict economy of means. In his drawing of a
woman's head (fig. 53) he went far beyond a mere por-
trait ; he is concerned with the pleasant disposition of his
sitter. In other words he drew the smile rather than the
features, and achieved both with the minimum of light
and shade. He refused to dirty his drawing with mere
masses of dark and gained his end rather by working
round his lights, for to him the lights were the essence of
the form.
In Holland, Rembrandt among the Italianizing
Fig. 59.—A drawing in pencil by Lord Leighton.
189
Fi(.. 60.—A drawing by Lord Lcighton, made with black and white
chalk on brown paper.
190
I t
THE DRAWINGS OF THE MASTERS. 191
Dutchmen stood alone. Here again like Durer andHolbein, his subject matter for his etchings is from the
Bible, though he sat at his window and accepted the
types and costumes of the Jewish folk who swarmedbelow as they do to this day. He like Durer was always
accumulating material, though many of his so-called
drawings are compositions set down hastily as they came
into his head^ and often with splendid emphasis on the
significant lines. He is the very type of an artist.
Every event, and there were some sombre ones in his
career, seems to call forth from him not speech or letter,
but drawings, in which he sought new ways of expressing
himself, a new outlook. When his wife lay dying, he
made a slight pen-drawing of her, pinched and wan in
bed. After her death he wandered by creeks and ham-
lets outside Amsterdam drawing with simple pen strokes
what he saw, the roads, trees and tumble-down houses,
which latter cannot be found there any more; for in
Holland all is now clean and tidy, especially the fish-
wives of Marken, who hasten themselves and their chil-
dren into their ancient dress when they see an excursion
steamer, full of tourists, approaching. These drawings
are models of compressed expression, for while Rem-brandt was thus trying to solace himself for his loss, he
was subconsciously working out like Durer a method of
putting things down in their simplest terms.
Many painters have left but few drawings, a pro-
minent instance being Velasquez. It has been thought
that he attacked his composition on the canvas without
preliminary work for there are pictures by him where
strips of canvas have been added, t)ecause, as he pro-
192 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
ceeded, the development of the subject demanded more
space. But the absence of drawings is no reason whythe student of form should neglect Velasquez for he was
one of the greatest of draughtsmen. He had not the
swagger of Rubens, the feeling for humanity of Rem-brandt, nor the clearly defined edge of Holbein, but in
his brushwork he showed a knowledge of and a means of
suggesting atmosphere, which no other master quite
reaches. He draws with the brush in a real sense, for he
goes far beyond the earlier technique of painting, the
bringing of two surfaces of paint sharply together in a
contour. With some painters if the canvas is held to the
light haloes appear round the forms where the paint is
non-existent. But Velasquez welded his edges together
so that they became one passage ; he placed accents in
different degrees of intensity to suggest nearness to the
eye, or by blurring edges he quietened the forms farthest
from the centre of interest.
Some of the dwarf and jester portraits painted with
less of the decorum and stiffness of the court portraits,
as if he did them to please himself, show the height of his
powers as a draughtsman.
In France during the Renaissance, the artists looked
largely to Italy for inspiration and guidance. But it
was Jean Clouet from Flanders who founded a great
school of portrait drawing. He settled in Paris and
with his descendants painted a vast series of small por-
traits. For these, as did Holbein some years later, he
first made drawings in black and red chalk, the latter
medium being already much in use in Italy. TheClouets and their followers made numbers of these por-
THE DRAWINGS OF THE MASTERS. 193
trait drawings, justly famed for their delicacy and pre-
cision.
Later Watteau and other artists of his period used
the method with more vigour applying it to figure com-
position generally.
Mr. W. Strang, followed by other modern draughts-
men, has revived the method for his series of portrait
heads.
Claude is noteworthy as one of the first painters to
study or sketch outdoors. But these drawings mademostly with the brush, are rather studies of composition
—
how the light falls on groups of trees and tree trunks,
and divides the composition into masses of shade, though
he certainly drew twining ivy and slender branches of
foliage against the sky.
One; wishes but vainly for some drawings of still
life by Chardin, to note how he indicated the volume of
his fat bottles, and their effect against his quiet back-
grounds.
Watteau left numberless drawings mostly with the
red and black chalk handed down from the Clouets.
Here was an artist who valued drawing for what it wasworth to him. He wanted above everything movementeasy and langorous perhaps on the surface but suggest-
ing a hidden fire, vivacity and alertness, (fig. 24). Thelady seated on the ground with her hand on the arm of
the gallant is about to rise. The impression of move-
ment is conveyed, while the contrast of the rising
torse with the scrumpled legs hidden in the voluminous
skirt is stated with conviction. Watteau used the chalk
rather than the brush in making his studies, because he
194 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
knew that the hard point enabled him to deal more
trenchantly with structure and movement. It is pre-
eminently painter's drawing or rather drawing for
painting. How often does the student make his studies
for a picture, in say water-colour only to find that this
medium has its own convention, demanding the disre-
gard of everything not essential to it, with the result that
the water-colour study contains little that is of direct use
and worse still has not impressed on the mind facts of
structure and line required for the carrying out of the
work.? Drawing with charcoal or with the point would
have helped him to arrive at the essentials, without im-
posing on him conventions clashing with those special to
the material which he proposes to use.
The modern era is now reached. Jean Dominique
Ingres, the upholder of the academic banner against the
romantic movement had perhaps the most skilful pencil
of any draughtsman early or recent. His cleverness
approaches legerdemain, so that there are those whodeclare that to place his drawings before the student is to
court disaster, luring him to attempt by trickery what no
one but Ingres could accomplish. His methods how-
ever, are plain in his drawings, reproductions of which
may be seen in Newne's edition (now out of print). Hesurveyed the pose, sketched in the leading lines, studied
the structure beneath the clothes with light strokes before
he concentrated on details. He made many portrait
drawings while in Rome for a few francs apiece, and as
time was short, gave most of it to the head, the remainder
of the drawing being left with the first strokes showing.
The finish he gaye to the surface forms of the face is of
THE DRAWINGS OF THE MASTERS. 195
course possible only to himself, though well worth the
keenest attention, for it could have been compassed only
by a close study of the structure, (fig. 57.)
Jean Francois Millet is to be noted among the
Barbizon groups for his drawings. He was a type of
artist who painted in series. A picture was influenced
and suggested by an earlier one, to which it formed a
corollary, and as it were completed it. He wished to
depict the whole life of the French peasants of his time,
their labours and privations and how these varied during
the year. His mode of study required first and always
close observation rather than actual painting from the
model and scenery, which he despised as tending to
triviality. Consequently he made numberless notes of
figures engaged in rural occupations, mainly from
memory. His drawings show without finicky detail the
character and bodily structure of his subject; even the
drapery seems to have its appropriate weight and coarse-
ness of texture, while the action leisurely and untKeatrical
is expressed with a sombre strength, (fig. 58).
Puvis de Chavannes worked after the great schools
of art in Paris had established themselves and settled
their methods, and therefore made the studies for his
great mural decorations with charcoal the implementcommonly used for drawing from the life. His draw-
ings are excellent, so solid and weighty are his figures,
the feet firmly planted on the ground and the structure
cared for throughout. Mr. C. H. Shannon has one
squared off for transferring to the canvas.
Of the drawings of the great French master Degas,
only the studies of the ballet dancers are familiar to
196 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
Engli&h students, and these mostly from reproductions.
Degas, and not without prolonged study, achieved an
extraordinary degree of intimacy in his drawings. His
people never look like models stuck on a throne, and so
quietly and naturally do they move that the artistic mas-
tery is only observed after careful scrutiny. This feeling
of what one may call "at homeness" though Degas did
not always seek his subjects at home, is not easy to
analyse and account for. His drawings are the opposite
of diagrams or maps of form. His figures are always
depicted in relationship with their surroundings and one
of the secrets of his power in this respect may lie as has
been pointed out, that he drew as it were with a wide
angled lens, not as if he were surveying a stage or scene
from a distance, but as if sitting among those he depicted
so that one would have to turn the head to take in the
width of space taken up by the drawing. And as one
might expect Degas was very careful over the placing of
his accents, and equally so with his non-accented
passages, those where the form merged into the back-
ground. The Burlington Magazine recently published
some illuminating articles on the master by Mr. Walter
Sickert, and also reproduced three views of a head.
In Germany Adolf Menzel during a long life
made more drawings than any other painter. They are
all painter's studies, that is for use in his pictures,
which were mainly historical in character and needing
the closest attention to details of costume, architecture,
etc. They are highly realistic and made mostly with
black chalk and charcoal. A characteristic selection
is reproduced in Newne's series, but there are very few
Fic. 6 1—A drawing in red chalk b)- Alfred Stevens.
197
Fig. 62—A drawing in red chnlk by Alfred Ste\'cns. Red challc
should be avoided by students. The colour distracts their attention
from the form.
198
THE DRAWINGS OF THE MASTERS. 199
originals to be seen in Britain. In his insistence onstructure and in his tenacity he reminds one of Durer,
though with an almost photographic vision, a result
attained however not by stippling, but by direct andsummary methods. There is a chalk drawing of the two
reclining female figures from the Parthenon which must
have been made at top speed and yet everything is there.
The figures were indicated and their ample forms sug-
gested by smudges of chalk, the accents of the drapery
etc., being set down firmly on this preparation. Hol-
bein must have used a similar method, for several of his
portrait heads show the silvery shading done with stump
or finger the pen drawn accents of the features for somereason having been omitted.
Menzel's methods must have aroused much interest
on the continent which perhaps account for the exclu-
sive use of charcoal, a favourite medium of his, in the
art schools. Menzel spared no pains to get on intimate
terms with his subject material, the current military and
court life of Germany, the most exacting in details of
equipment and social custom. His importance as his^
torian was acknowledged, and on several occasions
important conferences suspended their business, while
Menzel took out his sketch book and made notes of
costumes or grouping.
In England, of the brilliant group of portrait
painters, Gainsborough is most famous for his drawings,
perhaps because he had more time. He obtained a
beautiful silvery quality but the portraits are rather
quick sketches for composition than studies of form, and
the same may be said of his landscapes.
3O0 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
The illustrators of the sixties the magazines of which
period should be bought and treasured by every student
of figure composition, Millais, Charles Keane, Fred
Walker, Sandys, and many others, by their enthusiasm
made that decade perhaps the brightest in the history of
British art. The illustrations are really drawings
though at second-hand through the medium of the
engraver. The ignorant and youthful student on turn-
ing over the pages of these magazines glances at the
pegtop trousers and crinolines, and pronounces the illus-
trations old-fashioned. The fashions .however are
nothing, the art is everything, and the student must look
beyond the one to absorb the other. The period is not
yet far enough removed as is the dress of the eighteenth
century, to seem romantic.
It must be remembered that these draughtsmen had
not the freedom of the present-day men to draw to what
scale they liked, but drew on the wood the actual size of
the print and in reverse, which sometimes added im-
mensely to their difl&culties.
Turner left the nation thousands of sketches, an
astonishing number when his output of what he con-
sidered finished work is considered. He influenced
Ruskin who emphasized the need for close study of
growth and structure. Of late his art teaching in this
direction has been somewhat ignored partly because he
advocated the copying of bits of Durer etc. But he
gave reasons for all his exercises and not a few have
never acknowledged or perhaps even understood their
debt to his teaching. Turner himself as Ruskin has
pointed out, in his drawings of landscape displayed ex-
Fig. 63—A drawing on dark paper ot an old woman's head by Matthias
Grunewald. A worl< of great vitality and force. The skull high at the
back as in women shows clearly through the head covering which, though
the draughtsman mast have been quite familiar with, he draws with
inquisitivcness as if he had seen it for the first time—the right attitude
for a student of drawing. [British Museum.
^''Af :' *
.s eO 3
iH 3
o
Fig. 65—A drawing in red chalk by Giorgione of a nude in stnjng action.
The dominant line of the pose starts with the head and then travels downthe neck .along the spinal column to the legs. The head, hands and
espechally the feet shew less observation than the torse and limbs.
203
Fig. 66—A composition by Frngonard. An example of drawing with the
brush. The .ibrupt square rh)thm of stroke is very evident. The drawing
is lull ot movement, secured by giving the "directions" their full degree ot
obliquity. [British Museum.
THE DRAWINGS OF THE MASTERS. 205
traordinary knowledge of the structure of natural form
;
the lie of the ground, the cleavage of rocks, the folds of
the hills he made clear, and was equally at home in
showing the perspective and arrangement of cloud forms
and the movements of water. He had a keen percep-
tion of rhythm and a profound understanding of com-
position. He made the salient points of his masses
whether mountain, trees, or city wall conform to large
invisible curves, and was master of the art of leading the
€ye into the picture to some desired point.
Of drawings by modern masters those by Lord
Leighton are well known by reason of their frequent re-
production, and exhibition in schools of art/ His early
drawings of plant forms were in line with Ruskin's
teaching.
Delicacy and precision are shown in fig. 59, yet a full
range of curve and movement is given to the stalks and
leaves. The emphasis though not insisted upon is
sufficient to detach the forms. The subtly varying lines
of the flower stalks should be noted. The arrangement
of the flower heads has been observed. No two are on a
level and the spaces between are unequal.
Leighton's drapery studies (fig. 60) show a technique
which has been widely adopted. They were made with
black and white chalk on brown paper. He took pains to
understand the forms under the drapery, sometimes mak-ing a preliminary drawing from the nude. The study
must be looked upon as a working drawing, to be used in
a painting, and therefore giving the fullest possible con-
tent of forms, which accounts for its over accentuation.
2o6 DRAWING FOR ART STUDENTS.
Alfred Stevens has already been referred to. Figs.
6i, 62, should be studied carefully. In fig. 61 move-
ment and structure were the pre-occupation of the master.
It should be noted how the curved form grasped by the
model, dominates the pose, a curve repeated in reverse
by the figure. The joints are well marked. The line of
the arms is continued across the shoulders and back.
The repeated attempts to place the right arm and hand
show that the involuntary movements of the model were
seized on to give increased vitality to the pose. Stevens
was one of the few draughtsmen who give all the move-
ment the human figure exhibits.
In FIG. 62 the shade lines are used to suggest
the planes, and to give the weight and solidity of the
body, which is insisted upon as much as in any "cubist"
drawing. A curious instance of academic "shading"
occurs in the rendering of the left shoulder. In the
arm repeated below, the linear method is reverted to.
The amplitude of the forms should be noted.
Whistler is said by Cuneo to have deprecated the
study of drawing as practised in the art schools yet his
numerous drypoints and lithographs which are essen-
tially drawings prove him to have exploited drawing to
the utmost. He cannot be called a skilled draughts-
man, and the structure and details of the bands in his
portraits gave him great trouble, yet he will always be
studied for his delicate perception of the sinuous and
flexible in line, of the gradation of tone and the value of
the right place of accent. According to Mempes he
once described his method of drawing which howeverwent on all fours with that of other masters. He first
Fig. 67—A sketch in pen and ink and wash by Guercino. Everything is
subordinated to the action and rhythm of line and the phicing of the accents
of dark. [British Museum.
207
Fig. 68—A wonderfully detailed dra\Aing b)- David Loggan. The head
seems too low in the oval. " D}namic Symmetry " might be able to
show that this is so because the features do not happen to coincide with
important divisions of the rectangle enclosing the ellipse. [British Museum.
zo8
THE DRAWINGS OF THE MASTERS. 209
placed his focus of interest, it might be a figure, tower or
bridge, where he wanted it. From this he threw lines
establishing the masses of his composition, and his mind
at ease' he went on to express in detail whatever part he
chose to work at. Reference is made elsewhere to the
way he trained his memory.
While so many masters must be omitted necessarily,
one may barely mention Vierge that master of line and of
the placing of darks. His work should be closely
studied by all illustrators.
This chapter will close without any reference to
living masters or to new movements in the study of form,
though the student will take a keen interest in the con-
troversies of to-day and will certainly admire and per-
haps found himself upon the work of those whom he
feels most in sympathy with. The omission must not be
taken as implying that there are no great draughtsmen
living, or that the new movements are negligible.
But all in these pages has been concerned with form
in its three-fold aspect of movement, structure and
appearance as revealed by light. If the student has
been well grounded on some such lines, the new theories
of form will have no terrors for him, nor will he be con-
founded by their results; but it is evident that in this
book only those methods'which have been sanctioned by
the practice of the long line of masters could have been
dealt with.
INDEX.
N.B.—The figures in heavy type indicate those pages onwhich Illustrations occur.
Anatomy, 94, 98Animals, 118, 127, 120, 123Artists :
Botticelli, 4Correggio, Frontispiece
Crawhall, 109, 115Degas, 3, 196Durer, 4, 171, 176Fragonard, 204Gainsborough, 199Giorgione, 203Giotto, 182Griinewald, 201Guercino, 5, 91, 207Holbein, 4, 90, 150, 152, 172,
173, 182Ingres, 4, 185, 194Leighton, 189, 190, 205Leonardo da Vinci, 174, 182Loggan, 208Lorenzo de Credi, 202Maclise, 38Menzel, 196Michael Angelo, 177Millet, 186, 195Raphael, 178Rembrandt, 4, 5, 184, 188Reynolds, 89Rubens, 5, 179, 180, 183, 187Ruskin, 27, 132Stevens, 153, 197, 198, 206Velasquez, igi
Vierge, 209
Watteau, 82, 193Whistler, 206
Assyrian Bas-Relief, 167, 175Athenian Vase, Drawing from,
168, 175
Backgrounds, 60Bias of Vision, 7Birds, 120, 121Botticelli, 4
Chalk Drawings, 99, 100, 171Charcoal Studies, 41, 42, 47, 48,
54, 63, 69, 70, 92, 116Chinese Drawings, noClouds, 27Composition, 5, 139Construction, 30—33Convention, 151—160Correggio, Frontispiece
Costume Study, 142Crawhall, 109, 115Cylindrical Forms, 23, 24, 25
Degas, 3, 196Design, 139Durer, 4, 171, 176
Edge Study, 85Etching, Pencil Studies for, 154,
155
211
212 INDEX.
Face, 22Figure Studies, 19, 20, 32, 49
—
84, 53, 54, 55, 59, 63, 64,
70, 92, 116, 119Figure, Time Sketching, 73
—
79Form, 103—106Form, Search for, 39, 61-72Fragonard, 204
Gaiasborough, 199Giorgione, 203Giotto, 182Griinewald, 201Guercino, 5, 91, 207
Head, 22Holbein, 4, go, 150, 152, 172,
173, 182
Illustration, Drawing for, 161
—
165Ingres, 4, 185, 194
Japanese Drawings, no, 113,
114
Landscape, 128—132" Lay in " of Oil Study, 141
Leighton, 189, 190, 205Leonardo da Vinci, 174, 182
Light and Shade, 34—46, 41
Loggan, 208Lorenzo de Credi, 202
Maclise, 38Memory Drawing, 107—117, 119
Menzel, 196Michael Angelo, 177
Millet, 186, 195Movement, 51, 52, 53
Oil Painting, 141, 144
Painting, Drawing as a Prepara-tion for, 140—148, 141, 142
Pencil Drawings, 43, 44, 156Perspective, 14Planes, 22Plant Form, 133—139, 124, 137,
138, 189Post-Impressionists, 7Proportion, 3, 13—21
Quadrupeds, 29
Raphael, 178Recumbent Forms, 20, 28Related Figures, 80—84, 81, 82
Rembrandt, 4, 5, 184, 188
Re5molds, 89Rubens. 5, 179, 180, 183, 187Ruskin, 27, 132
Sincerity, Quality of, 3Stevens, 153, 197, 198, 206
Still Life, 42Style, 4Sub-consciousness, 11
Tone Study, 34—46Toned Paper, drawing on, 10
1
102T5rpe Forms, 22—29
Velasquez, 191Vierge, 209Vision, Bias of, 7—12
Water Colour Drawing, 142, 149Watteau, 82, 193Whistler, 206Wrist, 26
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